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THE HANDBOOK SERIES 


AMERICANIZATION 





THE HANDBOOK SERIES 


Agricultural Credit 
Americanization - $1.50 

European War. Vol. I 
European War. Vol. II 
Industrial Relations 
Employm’t Managem’t, $1.80 
Modern Industrial Move¬ 
ments - - $1.80 

Problems of Labor, $1.80 

League of Nations, 4 th ed ., $1.50 
Prison Reform 

Russia - - - $1.50 

Short Ballot 

Socialism 

Vocational Education 

Each volume, except as otherwise noted, 
$1.25 net 









THE HANDBOOK SERIES 


AMERICANIZATION 


PRINCIPALS OF AMERICANISM 
ESSENTIALS OF AMERICANIZATION 
TECHNIC OF RACE.ASSIMILATION 
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Compiled and Edited by 

WINTHROP TALBOT, A. B., M. D. 

i\ 

Second Edition Revised and Enlarged by 
JULIA E. JOHNSEN 


THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
NEW YORK 
1920 





Published December, 1917. 
Second Edition April, 1920. 

4 003 1 St 

" 4-/0 


EXPLANATORY NOTE 


This volume on Americanism and Americanization is offered 
as a means for further clarifying our national thought in re¬ 
gard to present vital problems. From the Elder Statesmen and 
writers of today essential excerpts are quoted briefly. These 
writings have not been readily accessible to many, and yet they 
should be known to all of us, native-born and new citizens alike, 
in order that we may all become betterM.mericans. 

The chapters on Americanism andr Americanization are a 
digest of American philosophy in rel/tion to those ideals and 
principles which inform American life. The chapter on Technic 
of Race-Assimilation is a compendium of practice, giving the 
details of assimilation-methods in education, industry, politics, 
and everyday living. The annotated Bibliography is a helpful 
selected list of books on Americanism and Americanization. 
The titles relating to Race-assimilation include all the avail¬ 
able periodical references since 1900. The whole volume con- 
stitCtas a reference book of unique value to everyone who be- 
lievesiIT~America as a world force for civilization and de¬ 
mocracy as opposed to exploitation and autocracy. 


EXPLANATORY NOTE TO THE 
SECOND EDITION 

With this new edition of Americanization the bibliography on 
the subject is brought down to date. The many articles that have 
appeared since/tjae last issue, amply attest the live and earnest 
interest that dbiotijiues to be taken in the subject, an interest 
much augmented by the effect on the country of the late war and 
the present problems of industrial strife and unrest, inextricably 
intertwined in many ways with the problem of the unassimilated 
and the newcomer to our shores. The large number of new 
references have been included for the benefit of those who wish 


VI 


EXPLANATORY NOTE 


to supplement their reading on special phases or to study the 
subject thoroughly. 

In the 53 pages of reprints added, effort has been made to 
include such material as was thought to be most representative 
of recent publications in value and in interest to the student and 
reader. Special endeavor has been made to emphasize the more 
concrete aspect of Americanization, indicating among a multitude 
of excellent movements, a few of the more noteworthy efforts, 
methods, and ideals, directed to a wise solution of this great 
American problem. Julia E. Johnsen. 

November 20, 1919. 


CONTENTS 


Part I. PRINCIPLES OF AMERICANISM 

Introduction: Americanism . i 

Taylor, Bayard. America . Poem 4 

Compact of the Pilgrim Fathers. 5 

O’Reilly, John Boyle. The Pilgrim Fathers . Poem 6 

Adams, Samuel. Natural Rights of Mankind . 8 

Jefferson, Thomas. Declaration of Independence: Preamble 8 

Jefferson, Thomas. Principles of American Government.. 9 

Lincoln, Abraham. Meaning of the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence . 10 

Massachusetts Declaration of Rights . 11 

Sumner, Charles. Equality Before the Law as the Basis of 

Human Rights . 19 

Sumner, Charles. Limits to Popular Sovereignty . 20 

Brown, John. His Last Protest Against Slavery. 22 

Lincoln, Abraham. Address at Gettysburg . 23 

McCarthy, Denis A. The Land Where Hate Should Die 

. Poem 24 

Schurz, Carl. An Immigrant’s Impression of America.... 25 

Bremer, Frederika. Woman in America . 26 

Wilson, Woodrow. Address to the Citizenship Convention, 

July 13, 1916. 28 

Van Dyke, Henry. Peace Hymn of the Republic_ Poem 32 

Hill, David Jayne. Americanism: What It Is . 33 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Fear God and Take Your Own Part 38 

Roosevelt, Theodore. A Sword for Defense. 39 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Americanism . 42 

Howe, Frederic C. Democracy of Tomorrow . 43 

Whitman, Charles Seymour. Opportunity and Obligation 

in America . 46 

Bourne, Randolph S. Trans-national America . 51 

Abbott, Grace. Democracy of Internationalism . 52 

Outlook. Editorial. The Old Stock and the New. 54 

Talbot, Winthrop. The Faith That Is in Us. 56 

























Vlll 


CONTENTS 


Wise, Stephen S. Brotherhood in America . 62 

Torbert, John B. The Meaning of Our Flag. 63 

Beecher, Henry Ward. The American Flag. 68 

Part II. ESSENTIALS OF AMERICANIZATION 

Introduction: Americanization . 73 

Dawson, William James. America . Poem 76 

Wilson, Woodrow. The Meaning of Citizenship. 78 

Gordon, George A. The Foreign-born American Citizen.. 81 
Grant, Percy Stickney. American Ideals and Race Mixture 89 

Zangwill, Israel. The Melting Pot. 92 

Guiterman, Arthur. Henry Hudson’s Log. Poem 93 

Steiner, Edward A. Essentials for Americanization. 94 

Weyl, Walter E. New Americans . ; . 99 

Fuller, Henry B. The Alien . Poem 103 

Jenks, Jeremiah W. and Lauck, William J. Assimilation 

and Progress . 107 

Commons, John R. Amalgamation and Assimilation. 108 

Addams, Jane. The Industrial Problem—The Immigrant 112 

Kephart, Horace. Who are the Mountaineers. 113 

DuBois, W. E. Burghardt. The Negro in the United States 119 
Washington, Booker T. Americanizing the Rural Negro.. 127 

Moton, Robert R. Signs of Growing Cooperation. 131 

Shaw, Albert. Assimilating the Indian . 139 

McKenzie, Fayette Avery. America and the Indian . 142 

Balch, Emily Greene. Our Slavic Fellow Citizens . 145 

Burgess, Thomas. America’s Duty to the Greeks . 150 

Taft, William H. American Education in the Philippines 153 

Gulick, Sidney L. Are Japanese Assimilable?. 157 

Whitman, Walt. Long, Too Long, O Land. 163 

Whitman, Walt. Flag of Stars! Thick-sprinkled Bunting.. 163 

Part III. TECHNIC OF RACE-ASSIMILATION 

Creel, George. The Hopes of the Hyphenated. 168 

Huebner, Grover G. The Americanization of the Immi¬ 
grant . 174 

McClure, Archibald. Some American Efforts at Immigrant 
Leadership . 185 


























CONTENTS 


IX 


Schools 

Dewey, John. Democracy and Education . 202 

Buchanan, John T. Compulsory Education. 204 

Claxton, Philander P. Educating a Nation. 206 

Wheaton, Henry H. Education of Immigrants. 207 

Talbot, Winthrop. The Workers’ Class . 217 

Rector, Lizzie C. A Workers’ Class of Illiterate Girls.221 

Abbott, Grace. The Education of the Immigrant. 223 

Moore, Sarah Wool. Schools in Camps.228 

Becht, George. Public School Education for United States 

Citizenship . 232 

Hughan, Jessie W. The Regents’ Examination _ Poem 234 

Libraries 

Dana, John Cotton. Books for Foreigners. 235 

Countryman, Gratia A. Buying Books for Aliens.235 

Campbell, J. Maud. An Educational Opportunity and the 

Library . 240 

Roberts, Peter. The Library and the Foreign-Speaking Man 243 
New York Libraries. Editorial The Library’s Part in Mak¬ 
ing Americans . 249 

The Home 

Breckinridge, Sophronisba P. The Immigrant Family_ 251 

Dunbar, Olivia Howard. Teaching the Immigrant Woman 252 
North American Civic League for Immigrants. Domestic 

Education Among Immigrants . 256 

Knowles, Morris. Housing and Americanization . 259 

N ATURALIZATION 

Howe, Frederic C. Americanization Day .261 

• Wilson, Henry B. The Meaning of Citizenship .262 

Campbell, Richard K. The Naturalization Reception, Phila¬ 
delphia, May 10th 1915 . 266 

Crist, Raymond F. Naturalizating the Alien . 268 

Buffington, Joseph. American Citizenship . 271 

McCarthy, Denis A. The Song of the Foreign Born. 280 

Living Conditions 

Mayper, Joseph. Americanizing Barren Island . 281 

Industry 

Clark, Marian K. The English for Safety Campaign.291 

Fahey, John H. American Industry and Immigrant Labor 294 

























X 


CONTENTS 


Boswell, Helen Varick. Promoting Americanization.297 

Kellor, Frances A. Americanization: A Conservation Policy 

for Industry . 302 

Labor Unions 

Commons, John R. Americanization by Labor Unions-305 


Markham, Edwin. The Right to Labor in Joy. Poem 308 

Politics 

Ross, Edward Alsworth. Naturalized Immigrants and Po¬ 
litical Leaders . 309 

Recreation 

Borosini, Victor von. Our Recreation Facilities and the 
Immigrant . 315 

Supplementary Material for Second Edition 
Cooper, Charles C. Necessity for Changes in Americaniza¬ 
tion Methods . 321 

Immigrant Contribution .Survey 324 

Hill, Howard C. Americanization Movement. 


.American Journal of Sociology 325 

Rumsey Frances. Racial Relations in America_Century 336 

Kellor, Frances A. International Relationship. 

.North American Review 339 

American Library Association: Enlarged Program. 343 

Dixon, Royal. Americanizing Our Foreign-Born_Forum 345 

What Every Americanization Worker Should Know. 351 

An Immigrant’s Program of Americanization.Survey 352 

Senger, Harry L. The American House.Survey 353 

Pauli, Charles H. Aims and Standards in Industrial Ameri¬ 
canization .Industrial Management 356 

Americanization, What Is It, What to Do. 366 



















BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Sometimes workers in the same field have had neither time 
nor opportunity to become sufficiently acquainted with each other, 
and sometimes we are narrowly absorbed in what we vision as 
fields particularly our own and are lacking in awareness of the 
accomplishments of others along lines which are parallel with or 
closely related to our own, so perhaps this Bibliography may 
serve as a welcome introduction to kindred spirits. 

It has seemed best to limit the bibliographical matter some¬ 
what narrowly. There are few topics in our social field which do 
not bear in some respect or degree, and oftentimes materially, 
upon Americanism and the process of Americanization. An ef¬ 
fort has been made to list writings which outline succinctly the 

(a) philosophy of nationality 

(b) meaning of Americanism and its spirit of contribution 

(c) essential nature of the American political constitution 

(d) mechanism of Americanization at home and abroad 

Effective Americanism is based upon ability to share thought, 

therefore unity of language is essential to effective Americanism. 
The bibliography of English to immigrants has been treated fully 
by the writer in a “Bibliography of textbooks for teaching the 
English language; dictionaries into English; and aids to libra¬ 
rians” issued as a Government bulletin by the United States 
Bureau of Education. 

A comprehensive bibliography of Americanization should in¬ 
clude the following topics: 

Illiteracy 

Education: compulsory; workers’ classes; evening schools; 
in the home; by libraries; by social organizations; by 
newspapers and the foreign press. 

Immigrant aid 

Government aid to immigrants and farmers 

Problems of living: housing; recreation; sanitation; markets 

Naturalization and nationality 

Naturalization and immigration 


xii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Handbooks of naturalization 
Citizenship 

Citizenship in domestic and international law 

Relations of the churches to city and industrial problems 

Municipal activities 

Bibliographies of immigration 

Bibliographies of cooperation 

Immigrants in the United States by races 

Books about immigrants and their home countries 

Fine arts and the immigrant 

Industry and the immigrant. 

Such a bibliography has also been prepared by the writer, 
but must be published in another volume. 

For those who are interested especially in work conditions, 
work relations, and industrial education, reference may be made 
to the writer’s “Select bibliography on the helpful relations of 
employers and employed.” (Cleveland, 1912) 

This bibliography is divided into its several topics in such 
a way as to be of use in indicating clearly the complexity, ex¬ 
tent, and importance of Americanism, Americanization, and 
Race-assimilation in America. 


Winthrop Talbot. 


SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ON 
AMERICANIZATION 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Americanization. Bibliography. 24p. Los Angeles, Cal., Library 
School. 1919. 

Americanization: a selected list of books in the public library of 
the city of Boston. 34p. Public Library. Boston, Mass. 
May, 1919. 

Books for and concerning foreign-born people. Bibliography. 
Maine Library Bulletin. 8:75-9. Ja. ’19. 

Dennison, Margaret, comp. Education of foreigners in America: 
a selective list of articles on the education of foreigners 
in America in the California state library. 3ip. Type¬ 
written. $1.55. Public Affairs Information Service. New 
York. 1917. 

List of references on American immigration including Amer¬ 
icanization, etc. 27p. Mimeograph. United States. Library 
of Congress. 1918. 

Schrage, J. T., comp. Immigrant and the English language: a 
contribution to a bibliography. 33P. Typewritten. $1.65. 
University of Wisconsin Library School. June, 1918. Public 
Affairs Information Service. New York. 

Talbot, Winthrop. Teaching English to aliens: a bibliography 
of textbooks, dictionaries and glossaries and aids to librarians. 
United States Bureau of Education. Bulletin 1917, no. 39. 
76p. 1918. 


AMERICANISM 

BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 

♦Adams, Samuel. Writings. Collected and edited by H. A. 

Cushing. New York. Putnam. 1904. 4v. ea. $5. 

Andrews, Matthew Page. American’s creed and its meaning. 
88p. *75c. School edition *5oc. Doubleday. 1919. 



XIV 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Beard, Charles Austin. Economic interpretation of the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States. New York. Macmillan. 1914. 

The relation of the Constitution to property and personality interests 
as affecting government by representation and as related to essential 
democracy. 

—. Economic origins of Jeffersonian democracy. New York. 
Macmillan. 

*Beecher, Henry Ward. Freedom and war; discourses on 
topics suggested by the times. Boston. Ticknor and Fields. 

1863. 

Benson, Allan L. Our dishonest Constitution. New York. B. W. 
Huebsch. 1914. 

An exposition of the Socialist program in the United States. 

^ Boas, Franz. Changes in bodily form of descendants of immi¬ 
grants; reprinted from the reports of the United States im¬ 
migration commission. O 586p. New York, Oxford Uni¬ 
versity Press. 1913. $1.75. 

Published separately also by the Government printing office, 1911. 

*Bremer, Frederika. Homes of the new world. Trans, by 
Mary Howitt. New York. Harper. 1853. 2v. 

Bryce, James. The American commonwealth. New York. Mac¬ 
millan. 1910. 

A classic authority. 

Butler, Nicholas Murray. A world in ferment; interpretations 
of the war for a new world. New York. Scribner. 1917. 

$1.25. 

Chapters on “The Building of the Nation,” and “Patriotism” are 
especially referred to. 

Coleman, George William. Democracy in the making; Ford 
Hall and the open forum movement; a symposium. Boston. 
Little, Brown and co., 1915. $1.50. 

Cooper, Clayton Sedgwick. American ideals. New York. 
Doubleday. 1915. 

Comprehensive and practical analysis of what Americanism stands for 
in industry, education, religion, and world politics. A chapter, “Attitude 
toward the immigrant,” pp. 229-52, gives an excellent survey of the 
social forces of Americanization now in active operation. 

Croly, Herbert. The promise of American life. New York. 
Macmillan. 1909. p. 468. $2. 

*Dana, John Cotton. Libraries; addresses and essays. New 
York. The H. W. Wilson co. 1916. 

Dexter, Edwin Grant. Weather influences. New York. Mac¬ 
millan. 1904. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xv 


Foerster, Norman, and Pierson, William Whatley, Jr., eds. 
American Ideals. 326p. *$1.25. Houghton Mifflin Company. 
1917 . 

Collection of essays, addresses and state papers. 

Fulton, Maurice Garland. National ideals and problems. 415P. 
Macmillan Company, New York. 1918. 

Essays, addresses and state papers on America and its ideals. 

Giddings, Franklin Henry. Americanism in war and in peace. 
Publications of the Clark University Library, v. 5, no. 5. i6p. 
pa. Clark University Press, Worcester, Mass. May, 1917. 
Hale, Edward Everett. We, the People. New York. Dodd, 
1903. $1.20. 

*Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed. American patriots and statesmen 
from Washington to Lincoln. The Collier Classics. New 
York. Collier. 1916. 

Admirable handbooks of Americanism. Vol. 1, Patriotism of the 
colonies, 1492-1774. Vol. 2, Patriotism of the revolution and constitu¬ 
tion, 1775-1789. Vol. 3, Patriotism of the early Union, 1789-1820. Vol. 
4, Patriotism of the East and West, 1820-1845. Vol. 5, Patriotism of the 
North and South, 1845-1861. 

—. National ideals historically traced, 1607-1907. (American 
nation, v 26). New York. Harper. 1907. $2. 

Haworth, Paul Leland. America in ferment. Indianapolis. 
Bobbs-Merrill. 1914. 

Of especial interest are the chapters: The trend; The blood of the 
nation; The color line; Our changing institutions; The road upward. 

*Hill, David Jayne. Americanism: What it is. New York. 
Appleton. 1916. 

Sets forth what is most original and distinctiv.e in American political 
conceptions and most characteristic of the American spirit. 

Hill, Mabel. Liberty documents: With contemporary exposition 
and critical comments drawn from various writers. New 
York. Longmans. 1907. 

Excellent source book. 

^Howard, Daniel. American history, government, and institu¬ 
tions ; a manual of citizenship for young Americans and new 
Americans. Boston. Palmer co. 1915. $1. 

Howe, Frederic Clemson. Privilege and democracy in America. 
New York. Scribner. 1910. 

A study of land, monopoly, privilege, wealth, and poverty, and 
industrial serfdom in America with reference to the new Americanism. A 
constructive book, one of the few which contribute notably to the compre¬ 
hension of problems which underlie democracy and Americanization. 

Huntington, E. Civilization and climate. New Haven. Yale 
University Press. 1915. 


XVI 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


—. The climatic factor as illustrated in Arid America. Wash¬ 
ington. Carnegie Institute. 1914. 573 p. 

Jenks, Jeremiah W. The character and influence of recent im¬ 
migration. In Questions of public policy: Addresses deliv¬ 
ered in the Page lecture series, 1913, before the senior class of 
the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, New Haven. 
Yale University Press. 1913. 

The question of assimilation is discussed on p. 33-7. 

Johnson, Allen. Readings in American constitutional history. 
Boston. Houghton. 1913. 

Important source book of documents relating to Americanism. 

Kales, Albert M. Unpopular government in the United States. 
Chicago. University of Chicago Press. 1914. 

Exposition of government of the few, by the few, and for the few, 
with a review of modern tendencies in the United States toward a larger 
democracy. 

Kelsey, Carl. The physical basis of society. New York. Apple- 
ton. 1916. 

Important consideration of the physical factors which affect and 
effect racial changes, especially on the American continent. Excellent 
suggestions for reading at the close of each chapter. This is one of the 
few books which deal at all with the physical basis of Americanization. 
Cf. Royce’s Physical basis of Americanization; Royce’s Race questions; 
chapter on the Pacific coast. 

Lane, Franklin Knight. American spirit; addresses in war¬ 
time. I3ip. *75c. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York. 1918. 
Low, A. Maurice. The American People: A study in national 
psychology. Boston. Houghton. 1909. $2.25. 

McCall, Samuel Walker. The liberty of citizenship. New Haven. 
Yale University Press. 1915. 

Chapters on the Racial sources of liberty, p. 66-99, and The liberty 
of the individual, p. 100-128, are of especial interest. 

Mecklin, John Moffatt. Democracy and race friction: A study 
in social ethics. New York. Macmillan. 1914. 

A book to be read in connection with Royce’s Race Questions and 
Zangwill’s Principle of Nationalities. Deals mainly with assimilation of 
the Negro. 

Monroe, Paul, and Miller, Irving Edgar. American spirit; a 
basis for world democracy. 336P. $1. World Book Com¬ 
pany. 1918. 

A collection of writings in poetry and prose. 

Neumann Henry. Teaching American ideals through literature. 
2ip. United States. Bureau of Education. Bulletin. 1918. 
32 :i-2i. 

Suggests books which give appreciation of America and the makers 
of our national life. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xvii 

*Nicolay, John George, and Hay, John. Abraham Lincoln; 

a history. New York. Century, iov. $20. 

*Redpath, James. The public life of Captain John Brown. 
Boston. Thayer, i860. 

Redfield, William Cox. The new industrial day. New York. 
Century. 1912. 

Shows how the appreciation of human values in modern American 
industry affects the extension of true Americanism. 

Reed, T. H. Government for the people. B. W. Huebsch. 
*Roche, James Jeffrey. Life of John Boyle O’Reilly; with his 
complete poems and speeches; edited by M. O’Reilly. Phila¬ 
delphia. McVey. 1909. $2. 

* Roosevelt, Theodore. Fear God and take your own part. New 
York. Doran. 1916. $1.50. 

Royce, Josiah. The philosophy of loyalty. New York. Mac¬ 
millan. 1908. 

A testament of Americanism. 

—. Race questions, provincialism, and other American problems. 
New York. Macmillan. 1908. 

Broad discussion of American idealism in its popular and practical 
aspects. Indispensable to the student of Americanism. 

*Schurz, Carl. Speeches, correspondence, and political papers. 

Ed. by Frederic Bancroft. New York. Putnam. 1913. $12. 
Semple, Ellen Churchill. American history and its geographic 
conditions. Boston. Houghton. 1903. 

—. Influences of geographical environment; on the basis of 
Ratzel’s system of authropogeography. New York. Holt. 
1911. 683 p. maps. 

Shaw, Albert. Political problems of American development. 
New York. Columbia University Press. 1907. 

Americanism is treated comprehensively in the second and third 
chapters, pp. 30-86, under Problems of population and citizenship, and 
Immigration and race questions. Race, language, and status are dis¬ 
cussed with especial reference to European and Asiatic immigration and 
the assimilation of the Negro. 

Smith, J. Allen. The spirit of American government: A study 
of the Constitution, its origin, influence, and relation to 
democracy. New York. Macmillan. 1907. 

Shows the obstacles to majority rule in the Constitution and its 
inherent opposition to democracy. 

*Sumner, Charles. Works. Boston. Lothrop. 1909. 15V. ea. $3. 
Tagore, Rabindranath. Nationalism. New York. Macmillan. 
1917. $1.25. 

Suggestive as giving the viewpoint of an Oriental thinker. The first 
chapter treats of Nationalism in the West. The writer curiously neg¬ 
lects the element of literacy as a factor in world-democracy. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xviii 

Thayer, William Roscoe. Peace. In Democracy, discipline, 
peace. 124P. *$i. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1919. 
♦Thorpe, Francis Newton. Federal and State constitutions, 
colonial charters and other organic laws of States, terri¬ 
tories, and colonies. 7v. Washington. Supt. of documents. 
1909. $5.25. 

Weeks, Arland D. Psychology of citizenship: Study of the 
psychology of our relations to civic affairs. Chicago. 
McClurg. 1917. 

Deals with mental traits affecting the quality of citizenship. 

Wells, Herbert George. Social forces in England and America. 
New York. Harpers. 1914. 

A chapter upon The American population, pp. 321-382, deals espec¬ 
ially with the forces of Americanization. 

Wilson, Woodrow. Division and reunion, 1829-1909. !a Epochs 
of American History, v. 3. New York. Longmans. 

Exposition of the development of democracy in America from a 
government organized upon the initiative and primarily in the interest 
of the mercantile and wealthy classes. 

—. The new freedom: a call for the emancipation of the gener¬ 
ous energies of a people. New York. Doubleday. 1913. 

Vigorous exposition of the economic and political changes which have 
resulted from the evolution of modern industrial society and the busi¬ 
ness corporation; the new needs of America. 

Van Dyke, Henry. The spirit of America. New York. Mac¬ 
millan. 1910. p. 276. $1.50. 

Young, J. T. New American government and its work. New 
York. Macmillan. $2.25. 

Zangwill, Israel. The principle of nationalities. New York. 
Macmillan. 1917. 

A philosophical consideration of nationality as a state of mind cor¬ 
responding to a political fact and determined by contiguous cooperation, 
visioning a world series of united republics. Stimulating and suggestive 
essay. Should be read in connection with Royce’s “Race questions” and 
“Loyalty.” 


MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

Alexander, Hartley B. Americanism. New Republic. 13:270-2. 
Ja. 5, ’i 8 . 

America; interpreted by living Americans in prose and verse, a 
symposium. Educational Foundations. 31:100-3. O.’19. 
♦American’s creed. Education. 38:794. Je. ’18. 

Gibbons, James Cardinal. What is an American? Delineator. 

93 : 5 . Jl. ’18. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xix 


Hart, Albert Bushnell. Cradle of liberty. Mentor. 6:1-11. Jl. 
i, '18. 

Henderson, Archibald. Democracy and American ideals. Book¬ 
man. 47:293-8. My. T8. 

Hunt, Gaillard. American idea. Catholic World. 109:289-97. 
Je. ’19. 

Lane, Franklin Knight. Flag: What I am. Ladies’ Home 
Journal. 36: 1. Jl. ’19. 

—. I will show you America. Jewish Immigration Bulletin. 
9:3-4. F. ’19. 

—. What is an American? Delineator. 93.2. Ag. ’18. 

Marshall, Thomas R. What is a worthy American? Inde¬ 
pendent. 93:314. F. 23, ’18. 

Ross, A. Franklin. American ideals: how to teach them. Edu¬ 
cational Review. 56:399-404. D. T8. 

Schneider,- Herman. Arthur McQuaid, American. Outlook. 
116:145-6, 616-18; 118:138-40; 119:420. My 23, Ag. 22, T 7, 
Ja. 23, Jl. 10, ’18. 

Tarkington, Booth. About America; a letter to a young French 
girl. St. Nicholas. 46:209-16. Ja. ’19. 

Taylor, Laurette. Famous and much-loved actress and her ideal 
of Americanism. Delineator. 93:11. N. ’18. 


ESSENTIAL AMERICANIZATION 

POEMS 


Bates, Katherine Lee. America the beautiful; poem, with music. 
St. Nicholas. 43:72-3. N. ’15. 

*Bryant, William Cullen. Poems. New York. Crowel 1 . 1893. 


The Ages, xxii-xxv. 

“Oh, Mother of a mighty race.” 

Our Country’s call. 

♦Dawson, W. J. America and other poems. New York. John 
Lane Co. 1914. 

America. 


♦Fuller, Henry B. Lines long and short. Boston. Houghton. 


1917. 

The alien, p. 118-23. 

♦Guiterman, Arthur. The laughing muse. New York. Harper. 


1915 . 

Satirical verse, “Henry Hudson’s Log, p. 82-4. 


XX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Ludlum, William J. Fabric; poem. Photo-Era. 41:32. Jl.’18. 
^McCarthy, Denis A. Heart songs and home songs. Boston. 
Little. 1916. 

America First. 

Banner of America. 

America to her children. 

The land where hate should die. 

Monroe, Harriet. America; poem. Poetry. I 3 :i 33 ~ 5 - D. T8. 
Newark Anniversary Poems. New York. Laurence J. Gomme, 
1917. 

Winners in the poetry competition held in connection with the 250th 
anniversary celebration of the founding of the city of Newark, New 
Jersey, May to October, 1916, together with the official Newark Cele¬ 
bration Ode and other anniversary poems, grave and gay. Introductory 
chapters and a plan for a national anthology of American poetry, by Henry 
Wellington Wack, editor of the Newarker, prepared by the Committee of 
One Hundred, Franklin Murphy, Chairman. 

*Taylor, Bayard. America. From the National Ode, July 4, 
1876. 

*Van Dyke, Henry. The Grand Canyon and other poems. 
New York. Scribner. 1914. 

Texas; a democratic ode. 

Peace hymn of the Republic. 

*Zangwill, Israel. The melting pot; a drama. New York. 
Macmillan. 1909. 


BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 

Abbott, Grace. The Immigrant and the community. New York. 

1917. 

Written by one who has had long and varied experience at first 
hand with the problem of Americanization. This book deals with the 
special problems of the immigrant girl; protection against exploitation; 
the immigrant in relation to the courts, public health, poverty, indus¬ 
trial education, education, politics, and American internationalism. 

Addams, Jane. Twenty years at Hull-House; with autobio¬ 
graphical notes. New York. Macmillan Co. 1910. 

Study of Americans in the making and the mechanism of practical 
Americanization. 

Americanization. Pamphlets. Chamber of Commerce of the 
United States. Immigration committee, 29 W. 39th St., New 
York. 1918. 

Americanization activities. United States. Bureau of Natural¬ 
ization. Annual Report, 1918. p. 24-67. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxi 


Americanization Bulletins 1-6. Ohio Council of National De¬ 
fense. Columbus. 

Titles are (i) What is Americanization. (2) Practical Americaniza¬ 
tion program for Ohio cities. (3) Americanization in industries. (4) 
Americanization through the public library. (5) English speech for foreign 
tongues; a few hints for teachers. (6) Teaching English to immigrants; 
some suggestions on methods and materials. 

Antin, Mary. The promised land. Boston. Houghton. 1912. 

The study of the Americanization of a Russian immigrant girl, eelf- 
viewed and self-narrated. A psychological analysis of an adjustment 
experienced by many. 

—. They who knock at our gates; a complete gospel of immi¬ 
gration. Boston. Houghton, Mifflin Company. 1914. 

Treats of immigration as an American issue, but discusses also the 
subject of assimilation, pp. 119-43. 

Ash, Sholom. America; translated by James Fuchs. American 
Jewish Chronicle Series. I5ip. $1. Alpha Omega Publishing 
Co., 1632 Aeolian Hall, New York. 1918. 

Bridges, Horace J. On becoming an American; some medita¬ 
tions of a newly naturalized immigrant. i86p. Marshall 
Jones Company, Boston. 1919. 

Burgess, Thomas. Greeks in America. Sherman, French & Co. 
1913 - 

Well informed study of Greek immigration, industrial development, 
institutions, and life in American cities, towns, and rural communities, 
including accounts of famous American Greeks. The style is popular. 
The book concludes with an excellent bibliography and guide to further 
study of Greeks in America, modern Greek language, medieval and modern 
Greece and Greeks, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. 

Cleveland, Grover. Good citizenship. Philadelphia, H. Altemus 

Co. 1908. 

Cole, Raymond E. Immigrant’s Guide to the City of Cleve¬ 
land. Cleveland. 1915. 

This book was the work of the city immigration officer and was is¬ 
sued in nine languages—English, Italian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Bo¬ 
hemian, Slovak, Croatian, and Yiddish. It is an model guide. Other 
cities would do well to issue similar publications. 

’’'Commons, John Rogers. Races and immigrants in America. 
New York. The Macmillan company; London, Macmillan & 
co., ltd., 1907. 242 p. 

"Amalgamation and assimilation." pp. 198-238. 

Dixon, Royal. Americanization. New York. Macmillan. 1916. 
196 p. 50c. 

Review by the vice-president of the League of Foreign-born Citizens 
of the work in Americanization being accomplished by various civic and 
social agencies, and especially by the National Americanization Committee. 

Americanization and the lack of a national epic consciousness. Cur¬ 
rent Opinion 61:183-4. S. ’17. A review of Royal Dixon’s "Americaniza¬ 
tion." 

Dole, Charles Fletcher. Coming people. Boston. World peace 
foundation. 


XXII 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. The negro. New York. Holt. 1915. 

A concise history of the negro. The chapter upon the Negro in the 
United States is in effect a chapter upon Americanization of the negro, 
and gives a comprehensive view of the history of negro assimilation 
and the forces which are making this possible. Valuable bibliography; 
Physiography of Africa; Racial differences, origin, and characteristics of 
negroes; early movemnts of the negro race; negro in Ethiopia and 
Egypt; Abyssinia; Niger River and Islam; Guiena coast; Congo valley; 
Great Lakes in Africa; South Africa; negro civilization; Slave trade; 
West Indies and South America; United States; future of the negro race. 

Fairchild, Henry Pratt. Immigration; a world movement and 
its American significance. New York. The Macmillan com¬ 
pany. 1913. xi, 455p. $1.75. 

Partly reprinted from various periodicals. 

Bibliography: pp. 439-449. 

The problem of assimilation of the immigrant is treated fully in pp. 
397 - 4 I 5 . and should be read by the student of Americanization. 

Federal state program for immigrant education. Massachu¬ 
setts. Board of Education. Department of University Ex¬ 
tension. Bulletin. V. 4, no. 1. 24p. January, 1919. 

Outlines plans of cooperation for the Board of education, bureau of 
immigration, public library commission public schools, chambers of com¬ 
merce, women’s clubs, industries, trade unions, settlement houses, sec¬ 
tarian organizations, public libraries, patriotic societies, foreign clubs and 
societies, the Y. M. C. A., K. of C., Y. W. C. A., Y. M. H. A., School 
authorities, University Extension Divisions. 

Fishberg, Maurice. The Jews: a study of race and environ¬ 
ment. New York. Scribner. 1911. 

Flowers, Montaville. The Japanese conquest of American opin¬ 
ion. New York. Doran, 1917. 

Comprehensive presentation of the anti-Japanese argument. Analyti¬ 
cal comparison of statements of Gulick, Kawakami, and Millis, pp. 91-97. 

‘‘When our boys and girls in high schools are hunting for material 
with which to debate the Japanese problem, they find gratis in our li¬ 
braries some or all of the following books: Books by Sidney L. Gulick, 
who in himself represents the Japanese, the Japan Societies, the Peace 
Societies and the Christian Church pro-Japanese movement; books by 
K. K. Kawakami, manager of one of the Japanese Press Bureaus in 
America; books by H. H. Millis, made for the Federal Council of 
Churches as a basis for its pro-Japanese campaign; books by the Japan 
Society of New York . . . and the Bulletin, edited by the Japanese 
Society.” p. hi. 

Gordon, George A. Appeal of the nations. Boston. Pilgrim 
Press. 1917. 

Five patriotic addresses by the minister of the Old South Church, 
Boston; American freedom; The foreign-born American citizen; Chris- 
tion and citizen; American loyalty; the Nation and humanity. 

Graham, Stephen. With poor immigrants to America. Harper. 
1914. 

Vivid and analytic contrast of Russia with the United States by a 
Russianized Englishman. It sheds light on Americanization from a new 
quarter. The chapter on ‘‘The choir dance of the races” is picturesque, 
and original. The medieval tone of the book is in line with the writer’s 
disbelief in free schooling (vide his defence of illiteracy in Littell’s Liv¬ 
ing Age, September, 1911.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxiii 


Grose, Howard Benjamin. Aliens or Americans? With intro¬ 
duction by Josiah Strong. New York. Young people’s mis¬ 
sionary movement. 1906. 337 p. 

Bibliography: pp. 321-23. 

Gulick, Sidney L. The American Japanese problem. New York. 
Scribner. 1914. 

Outlines America’s Oriental problem and suggests a new American 
oriental policy. Americanization is the substance of the book and in 
addition the question of whether the Japanese are assimilable is given 
special attention. The author is professor in Doshisha University and lec¬ 
turer in the Imperial University of Kyoto, Japan, and is a most reliable 
authority. 


Hasanovitz, Elizabeth. One of them; chapters from a passion¬ 
ate autobiography. 333P. *$2. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1918. 
Same condensed. Atlantic. 121:1-13, 199-210, 346-55, 516-20. Ja-Ap. 

' 18. 


Haskin, Frederic J. The immigrant, an asset and a liability. 
New York. Fleming H. Revell company. 1913. 251 p. 

This book is a reproduction of a series of articles which were pub¬ 
lished in a large list of newspapers throughout the United States. 

Heroes of freedom. 48p. California Commission of Immigra¬ 
tion and Housing, 525 Market St., San Francisco. 1919. 

An excellent pamphlet for Americanization groups. Contains read¬ 
ing list on heroes of many nations. 

Husband, Joseph. America at work. Boston. Houghton Mifflin 
Co. 1916. $1. 

Jenks, Jeremiah W., and Lauck, W. Jett. The immigration 
problem; a study of American immigration conditions and 
needs. New York. Funk. 1913. 

Readable account of the chief findings of the United States Immigra¬ 
tion Commission, Chapter on assimilation and progress, pp. 248-318. 

Kawakami, Kiyoshi Karl. Asia at the door. New York. Revell. 
I9I3- 

“The greatest problem of the age and of ages to come is that resulting 
from contact between the East and West." 

Kellor, Frances A. Straight America; a call to national service. 
New York. Macmillan. June, 1916. 193 p. 50c. 

Brief text book of Americanism: 

1. What is the matter with America? 

2. Americanism. 

3. The native American. 

4. America-made citizens. 

5. The popular vote. 

6. National unity. 

Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders. New York. 
Outing. 1913. 

Comprehensive and sympathetic account of the segregated mountain 
white of the South. A notable study of native-born Americans. 



XXIV 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Kuenzli, Frederick A. Right and duty or Citizen and soldier. 
Switzerland prepared and at peace: A model for the United 
States. New York. National Defense Institute, Tribune Bldg. 
1916. Also G. E. Stechert & Co. 

Lamkin, Nina B. America, yesterday and today. Pageant. 48p. 

50c. T. S. Denison & Co., Chicago. 1917. 

League of foreign-born citizens, its aims and activities. I 5 p. 

303 5th Ave., New York. 1919. 

Lenz, Frank B. ed. Immigration—some new phases of the prob¬ 
lem; a series of addresses delivered before the International 
immigration congress at the Civic auditorium, San Francisco, 
Cal., August 9, 10, ii, 1915, pub. by the American sociological 
society and the Committee of one hundred, Federal council of 
churches in America. San Francisco. 1915. 

Lingle, Clara Souther. Course on Americanization: studies of 
the people, and the movements that are building up the Amer¬ 
ican nation. With bibliography. 6ip. Extension leaflet, v. 2, 
no. 8. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 1919. 
Suitable for a club program. 

Loeb, Max. Adult education and the war. 8p. Marquette 
Building. Chicago. 1918. 

Gives statistics. 

MacCarthy, Jessie Howell. Where garments and Americans are 
made. New York. Writers’ Publishing Co. 1917. 

Story of the Sicher system of factory education for Americanization 
of foreigners, conducted in cooperation with the New York Board of Edu¬ 
cation; a challenge to hyphenatism. 

McClure, Archibald. Leadership of the new America; racial 
and religious. New York. Doran. 1916. 

Notable recent study of immigrants by races. The chapter on “Some 
American efforts at immigrant leadership” is an excellent and inclusive 
survey of Americanization of the immigrant. 

Millis, H. A. The Japanese people in the United States. New 
York. Macmillan. 1915. 

An investigation for the commission on relations with Japan ap¬ 
pointed by the Federal council of the churches of Christ in America. 
Contains a chapter on the problem of assimilation, pp. 251-75. 

Roberts, Peter. Civics for coming Americans. i8p. 50c. Asso¬ 
ciation Press, New York. 1917. 

—. The new immigration; a study of the industrial and social 
life of south-eastern Europeans in America. New York. 
Macmillan. 1912. 386 p. Illustrated. 

Assimilation and hindrances, pp. 292-340. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XXV 


Roman, Charles Victor. American civilization and the negro: 
The Afro-American in relation to national progress. Phila¬ 
delphia. Davis. 1916. 

Comprehensive stuciv of Americanism of the negro. Profusely il¬ 
lustrated with photographs from life of American negro types. 

*Ross, Edward Alsworth. The Old world in the New; the sig¬ 
nificance of past and present immigration to the American 
people; illustrated with many photographs. New York. The 
Century co. 1914. 327 p. $2.40. 

Review, Dial. 57:337-9- N. 1. ’17. 

Study of races in America. Important ex parte study of Americani¬ 
zation. 

Scherer, James A. B. The Japanese Crisis. New York. Stokes. 

1916. 

A brief, dispassionate, and informed study of the Japanese problem 
in Americanization. It treats of the opening of Japan, the coming of 
Japanese to California, Japan militant, whether the Japanese are as¬ 
similable, whether agricultural competition is safe, and the pros and cons 
of the alien land law. Assimilation, pp. 70-86. 

Shriver, William Payne. Immigrant forces; factors in the new 
democracy, by William P. Shriver. New York. Missionary 
education movement of the United States and Canada. 1913. 
277 P- *$0.50. 

Bibliography: pp. 247-52. 

Somers, Arthur S. Americanism and the Americanization prob¬ 
lem. 7p. National Security League, New York. 1918. 
Steiner, Edward A. The Confession of a Hyphenated American. 
New York. Fleming H. Revell Co. 1916. 

Discussion by an immigrant from Austria of true Americanization of 
the alien and how it is accomplished. 

—. Introducing the American Spirit. New York. Revell. 1915. 

$1. 

—. Nationalizing America. New York. Revell. 1916. 50c. 

Graphic word pictures of the process of Americanization, by one who 
has been Americanized. 

Steiner, Jesse Frederick. The Japanese invasion: a study in 
the psychology of inter-racial contacts. Chicago. McClurg. 

1917. 

Excellent statement of anti-Japanese argument. Should be read in the 
light of Royce’s Race Questions and Prejudices. Contains an extensive 
Bibliography of the subject. 

Suggested program for Americanization. 36p. General Fed¬ 
eration of Women’s Clubs. Americanization committee. Cal¬ 
ifornia Commission of Immigration and Housing, 525 Market 
St., Cal. 1919. 


XXVI 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Tupper, George William. Church and new Americans. Social 
service series, bulletin 32. 2op. pa. gratis. American Unitarian 
Association, 25 Beacon St., Boston. 1917- 
—. Foreign-born neighbors. Boston. The Taylor press. 1914. 

An account of the work directed by the Immigrant department of the 
State executive committee of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island for the past five years. 

Bibliography: pp. 161-72. 

Wald, Lillian D. House on Henry Street. Henry Holt and 
Co. 1915. $2. 

Account of the Henry Street settlement. 

War Americanization for states. 5op. National Americaniza¬ 
tion committee, 29 W. 39th St., New York. 

Statistics for states. 

Woods, Robert Archey, ed. Americans in process; a settle¬ 
ment study by residents and associates of the South End 
house, North and West Ends. Boston. Boston and New 
York, Houghton, Mifflin and company. 1902. 389 p. 
Supplements “The city wilderness, a settlement study” of the South 
End, Boston. 

Contents. —Woods, R. A., Metes and bounds. Rutan, E. Y., Before 
the invasion. Bushee, F. A., The invading host. Chandler, E. H., City 
and slum. Woods, R. A., Livelihood. Woods, R. A., Traffic in Citizen¬ 
ship. Cole, W. I., Law and order. Beale, J. F., and Withington, A 
Life’s amenities Cole, W. I., Two ancient faiths. Atherton, C. S., and 
Rutan, E. Y., The child and the stranger. Cole, W. I., and Miles, R. E., 
Community of interest. Woods, R. A., Assimilation; a two-edged sword. 


MAGAZINE ARTICLES 

* Abbott, Grace. Democracy of internationalism; which we are 
working out in our immigrant neighborhood in America. Sur¬ 
vey. 36: 478-80. Ag. 5, T6. 

An argument for denationalized internationalism. 

—. Education of foreigners in American citizenship. National 
conference for good city government, Proceedings, p. 375-84. 
1910. Philadelphia, National municipal league. 

Adams, Samuel Hopkins. Invaded America; making over the 
alien. Everybody’s. 38:55-64. Mr. ’18. 

Reprinted National Americanization Committee, 29 W. 39th St., New 
York City. 

Adler, Felix. True aims of American citizenship. Standard. 
5:220-3. My. ’19. 

Allen, L. A. Making Americans by motion pictures. American 
City, Town and county edition. 11:205. S. ’14. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxvii 


America first? Speak English! Everybody’s 35: 767-8. D. ’16. 
America for Americans. Bellman 26:315. Mr. 22, ’19. 
American House of Cincinnati. School Life. 1: 10. N. 1, ’18. 
Americanization. Nation. 108:823-4. My. 24, ’19. 
Americanization. National Efficiency Quarterly. 1:122-229. 
N. ’18. 

Americanization. New Republic. 5 : 322. Ja. 29, ’16. 

A discussion of war conditions as affecting assimilation and di«- 
assimilation. 

Americanization. Public. 22:54-5. Ja. 18, ’19. 
Americanization. Scientific American. 118: 562. Je. 22, ’18. 
♦Americanization Day. Immigrants in America Review. 1: 74-6. 
Je. ’ 15 - 

Letter of N. Y. Commissioner of Immigration Howe, and letter of 
Miss Frances A. Kellor. 

Americanization as patriotic service; Denver’s opportunity school 
a boon to foreign-speaking citizens. Americanization achieve¬ 
ments of the Frances E. Willard settlement. Union Signal. 
44: 5-6. Ja. 24, ’18. 

Americanization in California. School and Society. 3:931. Je. 
24, ’16. 

Americanization in terms of good will. Survey. 35: 534. R 5, .’16. 

Account of the conference on immigration and Americanization held 
in Philadelphia during the week of January 17, 1916. 

Americanization movement. School and Society. 9: 52-4. Ja. 
11, ’19. 

Aims of the Department of University Extension of the Massachusetts 
Board of Education, and agencies of cooperation; also the plan used by 
the Rochester, New York, Chamber of Commerce. 

Americanization of England. Literary Digest. 47:126. Jh 26, 
’13- 

Review of article in London Morning Chronicle describing the effect 
of Americans on social life in England. 

Americanization of immigrants. Editorial. Outlook. 111:881-2. 

D. 15, ’15- 

The sculpture of Beniamino Bufario, a young Italian immigrant. 
Americanization suggestions for American Red Cross workers. 

Americanization. 1:7, 12. Ap. 1, ’19. 

♦Americanization, what is it, what to do. I2p. National Secur¬ 
ity League, 19 W. 44th St., New York. 1919. 
Americanization—what it means. American Architect. 114: 
263. Ag. 28, ’18. 

Americanizing America. North American Review. 206: 517- 
20. O. '17. 


XXV111 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Americanizing a city: the campaign for the Detroit night schools, 
conducted in August-September, 1915 by the Detroit board of 
commerce under the auspices of the National Americanization 
Committee and the Committee for Immigrants in America. 
New York. National Americanization committee, 20 W. 34 St. 
N. Y. 1915. 23 p. 

Account of methods adopted and work done by the Detroit board 
of commerce and Board of education in instituting a campaign to teach 
English to foreigners. 

Americanizing the foreigner. Coal Age. 14:286, 415, 521, 
614, 708-9, 873-5, Ag. 8, 29, S. 12, 26, O. 10, N. 7, ’18. 
Amidon, Charles F. Judicial definition of allegiance. ' Outlook. 
120:88+. S. 18, T8. 

Antin, Mary. American miracle. Atlantic Monthly. 109:52-67. 
Ja. , I2. 

—. First aid to the alien. Outlook. 101:481-5. Je. 29, ’12. 

Entertaining story of an American lesson in order and cleanliness. 

—. Immigrants portion. Atlantic Monthly. 109: 518-25. Ap. ’12. 

Papers published last as “The Story of My Life.” 

—. Kingdom in the slums. Atlantic Monthly. 109: 368-79. Mr. 
’12. 

—. Making of a citizen. Atlantic Monthly. 109: 211-26. F. ’12. 
AsUe, G. F. Americanizing program. Playground. 11:190-2. 

Jl. ’ 17 . 

Work of the recreation commission of Detroit. 

Aspden, T. Fred. Americanization of our alien population. 

Bankers Magazine. 98:676-9. Je ’19. 

Auerbach, Samuel M. The Levantine Jew. Immigrants in 
America Review. 2:2, 47-53. Jl. ’16. 

Bagley, Mrs Frederick P. Woman citizen in action. Woman 
Citizen. 1:396+. O. 20, ’17. 

Americanization work in states where women vote. 

Balch, Emily Greene. Housework, English and immigrants. 

Journal of Home Economics. 6:447-9. D. ’14. 

*—. Our Slavic fellow citizens: The question of assimilation. 
Charities. 19:1162-74. D. 7, ’07. 

Afterwards printed as part of Professor Balch’s book, “Our Slavic 
Fellow Citizens.” 

Baldwin, R. N. Old orders—new deeds; how the St. Louis 
Mullanphy fund was rescued from the deadhand. il. Survey. 
34:114-15. My. 1, ’15. 

Barchard, Gertrude. Americanizing our immigrants. American 
City (city edition). 17:328. O. T7. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XXIX 


Barnes, Earl. Language as a factor in Americanization. Public. 
2i:954-7. Jl. 27, ’18. 

♦Barnes, Mary C. Duty of the American churches to immigrant 
people. Bible World. 41:36-8. Je. ’13. 

Paper by the founder of the Fireside League, a movement to teach 
immigrants to read and speak English by use of simple textbooks based 
on the Bible. 

—. New day in Christian Americanization. Missionary Re¬ 
view. 42:57-9. Ja. ’19. 

Proposes a church league of neighbors. 

Barnum, Gertrude. My immigrant neighbors: Becky on the un¬ 
employed. Outlook. 110:928-30. Ag. 18. ’15. An artist in a 
machine-made world. Outlook. 110:1001-3. Ag. 25, ’15. 
Graziella’s debt. Outlook. 110:51-3. S. 1, ’15. Matilda’s 
gardening. Outlook. 110:150-2. S. 15, ’15. 

Four vignettes of immigrant types. 

Beard, J. W. The immigrant in the woods. Proceedings of the 
Conference of Charities and Correction, p. 36. T3. 

Needs and characteristics of aliens in construction and logging camps 
of the Northwest, by a minister in Hoquiam, Washington. 

Bedrock. By an American woman. Atlantic. 123:696-700. 
My. T9. 

A personal realization of the American spirit. 

Bennet, William S. The immigrant voter. In Society for the 
promotion of social service. The immigrant and the com¬ 
munity, p. 68-73. New York. 1910. 

Beukema, J. C. Americanization work in Manistee. American 
City. 18: 357. Ap. T8. 

Blanpied, C. W. Americanization of the Gradouskis. World 
Outlook. 5:9-10. My. T9. 

—. Report of special immigration survey of the Pacific coast. 
Proceedings of the Conference of Charities and Correction. 
42-72. T3. 

Written by the immigration secretary of the Y. M. C. A., San Fran¬ 
cisco: Composition of coast population; immigrant housing and sanita¬ 
tion; immigrant education and recreation; need for protection from ex¬ 
ploitation; immigrant dependency, defectiveness, and delinquency; the 
constructive attitude of mind toward the immigrant. This report aided 
in the establishment of the California State Immigration Commission. 

Borosini, V. von. Our recreation facilities and the immigrant. 
Annals of the American Academy. 35: 357-67. Mr. To. 

An account of the parks, playgrounds, and other opportunities for 
recreation available for immigrants. 

♦Bourne, R. S. Trans-national America. Atlantic. 118:86-97. 
Jl. T6. 

A study of socialized nationalities, dual citizenship, and trans¬ 
nationalism. 


XXX 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Breckinridge, S. P. Education for the Americanization of the 
foreign family. Journal of Home Economics, n: 187-92. 
My. ’19. 

*—. Family in the community, but not yet of the community. 
Proceedings of the Conference of Charities and Correction, 
p. 59-75. ’14. 

Protest by the secretary of the Immigrant Protective League of 
Chicago against needless deportation and destruction of immigrant 
family life. 

Caffin, Charles H. Good citizenship—the product of giving as 
well as receiving. Immigrants in America Review. 1:46-50. 
Ja. T6. 

Conservation of intellectual, esthetic, and spiritual values in immi¬ 
grant contributions. 

*Cance, Alexander E. Immigrant rural communities. Annals 
of the American Academy. 40: 69-80. Mr. ’12. 

Study of distribution, race characteristics, and Americanization of 
immigrants in rural life by the specialist of the United States Commission 
of Immigration. 

—. Immigrant rural communities. Survey. 25:587-95. Ja. 7, Ti. 

This article differs from the one with identical title in the Annals 
of the American Academy. It deals with Americanization of Italian, 
Hebrew, and Polish farm folk in the Atlantic and Gulf States. 

Cannon, Joseph G. Native American. Outlook. 112:787-8. Ap. 

5, '16. 

Amusing account of the origin of the “native American,” from speech 
in opposition to the Immigration bill in the House of Representatives, 
1916. 

Carter, S. R. Americanization. City and State. 1:10-11. F. 
’19. 

Outlines a brief program of work for the government. 

Catholic immigrant problem. Literary Digest. 51:715. O. 2,’15. 

Review of article by Rev. Dr. Francis C. Kelley, president of the 
Catholic Church Extension Society, in Catholic Mind, S. ’15. 

Ciolli Dominic T. The “Wop” in the Track Gang. Immigrants 
in America Review. 11:2:61-4. July, T6. 

Experiences of an Italian student of medicine working in a railway 
construction gang. 

Civic theater of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Playground. 11: 255- 
7- Ag. ’17. 

Claxton, P. P. Churches and Americanization. Religious Ed¬ 
ucation. 14: 24-5. F. T9. 

Coke, F. W. Public forum in Americanization. Ohio Citizen. 
1: 6. Ag. T9. 

Commons, John R. New citizens for the Republic. World’s 
Work. Jl. 1903. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XXXI 


*—• Racial composition of the American people. Amalgamation 
and assimilation. Chautauquan. 39:317-25. My. ’04. 

Conn, H. W. Social heredity. Independent. Ja. 21, 1904. ^ 

Conserving the immigrant girl. Editorial. Bookmaker. 43:66. 
Mr. T6. 

*Cooper, Charles C. Necessity for change in Americanization 
methods. 8p. 5c. Pamphlet 115. National Conference of 
Social Work, 315 Plymouth Court, Chicago. 1918. 

Same. National conference of Social Work. Proceedings. 1918:435- 
42. 1919- Same. Jewish Immigration Bulletin. 9:9-10. February, 1919. 

*Creel, G. Hopes of the hyphenated, il. Century. 91:350-63. 
Ja. ’16. Discussion Century. 91:637. F. ’16. 

Interesting and careful study of many aspects of Americanization of 
the alien. 

—. Our aliens—were they loyal or disloyal? Everybody’s. 

40:36-8. Mr. ’19. 

Excerpts. How we abused the loyalty of our foreign-born. Literary 
Digest 60:92-6. Mr. 8, ’19. 

Curtis, Frances Kellogg. Some experiences of a home teacher. 

Woman Citizen. 2:276. Mr. 2, ’18. 

*Daniels, John. Americanizing eighty thousand Poles. Survey. 
24:374-85. Je. 4, ’io. 

Devine, Edward T. Americanization of the five sections. Sur¬ 
vey. 42:359-60. My. 31, ’19. 

Distributing the immigrant. Editorial. Independent. 78:287-8. 
My. 18, ’14. 

Concerning the North American Civic League for Immigrants. 
'•‘Dixon, Royal. Americanizing our foreign-born; the patriotic 
work of the League of foreign-born citizens. Forum 60: 
444-52. O. ’18. 

Doughty, Isabel. Taking Uncle Sam’s foster children into the 
family. Woman Citizen, n.s. 3:650-1. Ja. 4, ’19. 

Work of the International Institutes. 

Douglas, Archer Wall. Industrial efficiency of democracy. 
World’s Work. 32:36-8. My. T6. 

How democracy inevitably defeats an autocratic industrial system 
by the inimitable originality of its products, which arises from the free 
spirit of their creators. 

Eaton, Charles A.; Wise, Stephen S. What is an American ? 
Delineator. 93:8. O. ’18. 

Ellerbe, Paul Lee. Education for citizenship. Outlook. 120: 
64-5. S. 11, T8. 


xxxii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Erickson, N. A. Back to the land. Conference of Charities and 
Correction. 254-7. 1912. 

Fairchild, Henry P. Foreign Americans. Nation. 93 : 626-7. D. 
28, ’ll. 

Dangers from heterogeneous groups of population in America. 

—. Naturalization in the spotlight of war. Unpopular Review. 
10:1-18. Jl. ’18. 

Urges more strict naturalization procedure to the end of less artificial 
and better spiritual assimilation. 

Fall of the American Saxon. Literary Digest. 46:767-8. Ap. 5, 
'13- 

Decadence of American stock. Review of article in American Medicine. 
Finest American I know. American Magazine. 78:62-3. Jl. ’14. 
Sketches of successful immigrants. 

Fitch, John A. Lackawanna—swamp, mill, and town. Survey. 
27:929-45. O. 7, 'ii- 

Analytic account of living conditions of the workers in a newly 
established steel town. 

Fleischman, Henry. Administrator of the Educational Alliance, 
N.Y. City: The Educational Alliance. Immigrants in America 
Review. 1:2:68-71. Je. ’15. 

Foreign-born American’s views on Americanization. American¬ 
ization. 1: 16. Jl. 1, T9. 

Foreign-born of the United States, il. National Geographic 
Magazine. 26: 265-71. S. ’14. 

Froehlke, P. Confession of a so-called German pastor and a 
few reflections. Outlook. 118:13-14. Ja. 2, T8. 

Fulcher, Gwyneth M. Americanization of the immigrant in 
Chicago. Social Service Review. 8: 17, 8-10, 9, 9. O.-D. T8, 
^ Ja., '19. 

Further plans for study of Americanization. Survey. 40:431. 

Jl. 13, ’18. 

Carnegie corporation plans. 

Gaus John Merriman. New frontiers of assimilation. Public. 
21 :i5oi-3. D. 14, T8. 

Gedalecia, Joseph. Americanizing the shut-ins. Survey. 42: 
317-18. My. 24, T9. 

Need of Americanization education for inmates of hospitals, sanitoria, 
homes etc., Bellevue hospital (N.Y.) 

German spirit in America. New Republic. 14:282-4. Ap. 6, T8. 
Gillpatrick, W. Mexicans and Americans. Outlook. 96:772-6. 
D. 3, To. 

Appreciative analysis of Mexican traits important to friendly relations 
with Mexicans. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxxiii 


Goddard, Charles A. How a bank helps Americanize the foreign- 
born. Bankers’ Magazine. 97: 757-60. D. ’18. 

Goldenweiser, E. A. Immigrants in cities. Survey. 25: 596-604. 
Ja. 7, ’n. 

Goodwin, Clarence Norton. National Americanization. Immi¬ 
grants in America Review. 2:1, 27-31. Ap. ’16. 

Suggestions for a national program of Americanization by Judge 
Goodwin of the United States Superior Court, where thousands of aliens 
are naturalized each year. 

Governors favor absorbing aliens; survey of methods of Amer¬ 
icanization; Americanization a community problem. New 
York Times. Section 4. p. 1. F. 2, ’19. 

Grabo, Carl H. Americanizing the immigrants. Dial. 66:539- 
41. My. 31, ’19. 

Advocates both retention of foreign culture and assimilation into our 
own. 

*Grant, P. S. American ideals and race mixture. North Amer¬ 
ican Review. 195:513-25. Ap. ’12. 

Valuable study by the rector of the Church of the Ascension, New 
York City. 

Guggenheimer, Frederick L. Americanization of the Jewish im¬ 
migrant. Jewish Immigration Bulletin. 9:12-13. Ap. ’19. 
Gulick, Sidney L. Comprehensive immigration policy and pro¬ 
gram. Scientific Monthly. 6:214-23. Mr. T8. 

Immigration and laws based on percentage of naturalized and assimi¬ 
lated foreigners. 

Haddon, A. C. Environment versus heredity. Nature. 85:11-12. 
N. 3, ’io. 

Halsey, E. S. Our brothers the immigrants. World Today. 19: 
1375-81. D. To. 

Immigrant aid by the Young Men’s Christian Association. 

Ham, Clifford D. Americanizing Nicaragua: how Yankee ma¬ 
rines, financial oversight, and baseball are stabilizing Central 
America. Review of Reviews. 53:185-91. F. T6. 

Hansen, Annie L. Two years as a domestic educator in Buffalo, 
N.Y. Journal of Home Economics. 5:433-7. D. T3. 
Harmon, Dudley. Americans for America. Ladies’ Home Jour¬ 
nal. 35:3. Ag. T8. 

Hart, J. K. Cooperation between federal and state officials, civic, 
and voluntary organizations in the reception of immigrants. 
Conference of Charities and Correction. 39-42. ’13. 

Hedger, Caroline. Difficulties of Americanization. Immigrants 
in America Review. 2:26-31. Jl. T6. 


XXXIV 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


—. Public health nursing. Immigrants in America Review. 
2:39-42. Jl. T6. 

Health education in Illinois mining camps. 

Hemphill, Alexander J. Banker’s part in Americanization. 
Guaranty News. 8:1-6. Mr. ’19. 

Encouragement of investments as leading to stability. 

Hendrick, B. J. Skulls of our immigrants. McClure’s Magazine. 
35:36-50. My. ’10. 

Popular presentation of the resulfs of the investigation by Professor 
Franz Boas. Well illustrated. 

Herring, Herbert C. Uniting to help the immigrants. Mission¬ 
ary Review. 28:514-20. Jl. ’15. 

The work of the Home Mission Councils. 

*Hill, Howard C. Americanization movement. American Jour¬ 
nal of Sociology. 24:609-42. My. ’19. 

Hodges, L. Immigration life in the ore regions of northern 
Minnesota. Survey. 28:703-9. S. 7, ’12. 

Graphic account of living conditions among immigrant miners. 

Hot-shot from a German-born American. Literary Digest. 58: 
23-4. Ag. 24, ’18. 

A German-American’s argument in favor of suppressing the German 
press in America. 

Honorable hyphen, The. Editorial. Independent. 86:429-30. 
Je. 12, T6. 

Influence and attitude of the foreign language press favorable to 
Americanization. 

Hostages to peace. Editorial. New Republic. 3:28-30. My. 15, 
’i5- 

In gradually assimilating many races we are ‘giving hostages to peace.' 

Hough, Emerson. What one hyphenate thinks. Outlook. 119: 
627-8. Ag. 21, T8. 

Housing and health problems among immigrants. Immigrants 
in America Review. 2:39-46. Ag. ’16. 

Contains Public Health nursing, by Caroline Hedger; Immigrant 
housing and Americanization, by Albion Fellows Bacon; Housing and 
Americanization, by Morris Knowles. 

How the Red Cross helps in Americanization. School Life. 2:3. 
F. 16, T9. 

How to assimilate. Forum. 32:686-94. F. ’02. 

How to make Americans. Survey. 42:484-6. Je. 28, ’19. 
*Huebner, Grover G. Americanization of the immigrant. Annals 
of the American Academy. 27: 653-75. My. ’06. 

Scholarly essay of value and interest, treating of the whole problem 
of Americanization, its size and difficulties, and the forces of Americaniza¬ 
tion, namely: School, trade unionism, physical environment, and th? 
presence of American life—the church, politics, press, libraries, immigrant 
aid societies, amusements, and the employer. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XXXV 


Humphrey, Grace. Lincoln and the immigrant. Outlook. 115: 
234- F. 7, ’i7. 

The influence of Lincoln in the process of Americanization. 
Immigrant and Americanization. Editorial. Outlook. 115:182. 

Ja. 31, ’17. 

Review of address of Frank Trumbull before the New England Society 
of New York City. 

Immigrant and his community. Jewish Charities. 9:209-10. F. 
’19. 

Urges neighborhood movements as enlisting personal interest of the 
immigrant. 

Immigrant and the rest of us, The. Editorial. Outlook. 112: 
60-1. Ja. 12, ’12. 

Review of “A modest Immigrant,” by Agnes Repplier, and ‘‘Lo, the 
Poor Immigrant,” by Frances A. Kellor. 

Immigrant as an asset, The. Literary Digest. 50: 99. Ja. 13, ’17. 

Review of letter in “Machinist” from Jan Spaander, New York, 
November 9, on “Why immigrants come to the United States.” 

Immigrant’s Baedeker. Editorial. Outlook. 106: 287-8. F. 7,’14. 

Review of John Foster Carr’s “Immigrant’s Guide.” 

♦Immigrant’s program of Americanization. Survey. 40:596-7. 
Ag. 24, T8. 

Individual work for immigrants. Missionary Review. 37:214- 
22. Mr. ’14. 

Review of methods of aiding immigrants. 

Iron melting pot: what is being done in an iron mining town in 
Minnesota to fuse the foreigner with the nation, il. American 
City (T. and C. ed) 16:350-3. Ap. ’17. 

Is the American type changing? Outlook. 97:950. Ap. 29, Ti. 

Change of American type due to amalgamation and recent immi¬ 
gration. 

Is the “melting pot” a failure? Industry. 1:14. My. I, ’19. 
Jardine, E. L. Conserving the immigrant girl. il. Bookman. 43 : 
66-71. Mr. T6. 

Jenks, Albert Edward. Assimilation in the Philippines as inter¬ 
preted in terms of assimilation in America. American Jour¬ 
nal of Sociology. 19: 773-90. My. ’14. 

Professor of sociology in the University of Minnesota defines the basis 
of assimilation in the Philippine Islands. Chief factors are: Environment, 
citizenship, religion, aspiration, English language, and volition. 

—. Ethnic census in Minneapolis. American Journal of Sociol¬ 
ogy. 17: 776-82. My. ’12. 

—. Goal of Americanization work. Survey. 41:505. Ja. 11, 

’19. 


XXXVI 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


*Jenks, Jeremiah, W. The immigration problem; a study of 
American immigration conditions and needs. 3d ed., rev and 
enl. New York, London, Funk & Wagnalls Company. 1913. 
551 p. “Assimilation and progress”: p. 284-318. See also in¬ 
dex under Assimilation. 

Kallen, Horace M. Democracy versus the melting-pot; a study 
of American nationality. Nation. 100: 190-4, 217-20. F. 18- 

25, ’15. 

Analytic critique of “The Old World and the New,” by Edward 
Alsworthy Ross. Professor Kallen studies the attitude of Anglo-Saxon 
race consciousness toward immigration and expresses his belief that 
America is destined to become a federation of nationalities, each con¬ 
serving its own racial language, customs, and characteristics. 

—. Meaning of Americanism. Immigrants in America Review. 
1:12-19. Ja. T6. 

Review of the growth of Americanism, hyphenation, and citizenship. 

Kane, J. F. Big brother for the naturalization applicant. Out¬ 
look. 118:74-5. Ja. 9, T8. 

Kawakami, K. K. America in Korea. World Today. 19: 1218- 
23. N. To. 

Building of railways, waterworks, lighting plants, and telephone sys¬ 
tems in Korea by Americans. 

Kelley, Francis C. The Catholic immigrant problem. Catholic 
Mind. S. T5. 

Kellogg, Daniel, F. The changed American. North American 
Review. 200:59-70. Jl. T4. 

Epression of questioning perplexity concerning recent Americanism. 

Kellogg, Marian Sherwood. The coming American. Survey. 
25:705-8. Ja. 28, Ti. 

Review of three books: A. Maurice Low’s “The American People,” 
Henry Van Dyke’s “The Spirit of America,” and Herbert Croly’s “The 
Promise of American Life.” 

*Kellor, Frances A. Americanization: a conservation policy for 
industry. Annals of the American Academy. 65 : 240-3. My. 
T6. 

—. How to Americanize a city. American City. 14: 164-6. F. T6. 

The assimilation of the immigrant is a problem in which every civic 
agency is directly or indirectly concerned. 

—. Immigrant and preparedness. Immigrants in America Re¬ 
view. 1: 20-30. Ja. T6. 

Advocating centralized federal control of immigrant education. 

*—. Immigration in reconstruction. North American Review. 
209:199-208. F. T9. 

—. Industrial Americanization. American Industries. 19:35. 
Je. T9. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxxvn 


—. Justice for the immigrant. Annals of the American Acad¬ 
emy. 52:159-68. Mr. ’14. 

A brief study of exploitation and peonage in America. 

—. Lo, the poor immigrant! Atlantic Monthly. 117:59-65. Ja. 
T6. Same cond. Review of Reviews. 53:241. F. T6. 

Reply to Miss Repplier's “The Modest Immigrant.” Reviewed under 
the title “Our treatment of aliens.” Review of Reviews, 53:241, F. ’17. 

—. The Nation’s new front door. Harpers Weekly. 59:364-6; 
398. O. 17 and 24, T4. 

The new immigration policy of California and the West. 

—. The tie that binds immigration work, and citizenship. 

Survey. 31766-7. Mr. 21, ’14. 

Study of the Americanization movement in Cleveland. 

—. What is Americanization? Yale Review, n.s. 8:282-99. Ja. 

’19. 

—. Who is responsible for the immigrant? Outlook. 106:912- 
17. Ap. 25, T4. 

*Knowles, Morris. Housing and Americanism. Immigrants in 
America Review. 2: 45-6. Jl. ’16. 

Kohler, Max. J. Justice to immigrants on application for admis¬ 
sion to the United States. Immigrants in America Review. 
1:56-63. Ja. T6. 

Relating to exclusion of immigrants because of unfavorable industrial 
conditions in the city to which the immigrant - is bound. 

Labaree, Mrs. B. W. What New Britain is doing to help the 
immigrant. Missionary Review. 35 : 835-9. N. ’12. 
LaFontaine, Henri. America’s opportunity. Survey. 36:473-4. 
Ap. 5, T6. 

International Americanization as a means of peace. Article written 
by a senator of Belgium and professor of international law. 

Lane, Franklin K. Americanization—the need and method. New 
Jersey Municipalities. 3:51-4. F. T9. 

Same. What America means. Americanization. 1:2+. F. 1, '19. 

—. Great Experiment. Americanization Bulletin. 1:1. O. 15, 
T8. 

—. How to make Americans. Forum. 61:399-4o6. Ap. '19. 

—. What I mean by Americanization. Ladies’ Home Journal. 
36 73. My. ’19. 

—. What is it to be an American? National Geographic Maga¬ 
zine. 33:348-54. Ap. T8. 

Lape, Esther Everett. Americanization. Columbia University 
Quarterly. 20:59-80. Ja. T8. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xxxviii 

—. The “English first” movement in Detroit. Immigrants in 
America Review, i :46-50. S ’15. 

—. Putting America into your city. Ladies’ Home Journal. 
36:35-6. S. ’19- 

Lauck, W. Jett. Bituminous coal miner and coke worker of 
Western Pennsylvania. Survey. 26:34-51. Ap. 1, Ti. 

—. Cotton mill operatives of New England. Atlantic Monthly. 
109:706-13. My. ’12. 

—. Industrial communities. Survey. 25:579-86. Ja. 7, Ti. 

Mr. Lauck was the expert in charge of industrial investigation for the 
United States Immigration Commission. In this paper he describes the 
distribution of aliens and alien conditions of living in industrial com¬ 
munities. 

—. Metaphysical standards of living. Nation. 95:425~6. N. 7, 

’12. 

Commentary on “The Vanishing American wage earner." 

—. Vanishing American wage-earner. Atlantic Monthly, no: 
691-6. N. ’12. 

Leach, H. G. Denmark and the American ideals. Bookman. 33: 
639 - 43 . Ag. ’n. 

Influence of American literature in Denmark. 

—. Scandinavian studies. Nation. 95:561. D. 12,’12. 

The American-Scandinavian Society and the American-Scandinavian 
Foundation as contributing to Americanization. 

Lee, J. Assimilation and nationality. Charities. 19:1453-5. Ja 
25, ’08. 

Opinion regarding assimilation of immigrants; their adverse influence 
upon the United States; warning against demoralization through excessive 
immigration. Takes exception to the position held by Professor Emily 
Balch in “Our Slavic Fellow Citizens." 

Lending a hand to the immigrant. Outlook. 113: 397. Je. 21, ’16. 
Lenz, Frank B. Education of the immigrant. Educational Re¬ 
view. 51: 469-77. My. ’16. 

—. San Francisco’s immigrants. Immigrants in America Re¬ 
view. 11:2:67-9. Jl. T6. 

Lescohier, Don D. Americanization, what is it? Modern City. 
4:24. Jl. T9. 

*Levine, Max. Getting the immigrants balance in the Cleveland 
land courts. Immigrants in America Review. 1: 4, 31-6. Ta. 
T6. 

Lichtenberger, J. P. Negro illiteracy in the United States. An¬ 
nals of the American Academy. 49: 177-85. S. ’13. 

Lipman, Maurice C. Equality: a silhouette. World Today. 14: 
52-3. Ja. ’08. 

Colorful description of the effect of America upon a Lithuanian 
immigrant. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


XXXIX 


Lipsky, A. Political mind of foreign born Americans. Popular 
Science Monthly. 85:397~403. 0 . ’14. 

Careful and well-written statistical analysis of the voting attitude of 
Americans, Russians, Jews, Irish, and Italians toward Tammany, Socialism, 
and the Hearst papers. 

Living down the hyphen. Dial. 66:401-5. Ap. 19, '19. 

Lowie, R. H. Dr. Radosavljevich’s critique of Professor Boas’ 
work. Science, n.s. 35:537-40. Ap. 5, ’12. 

Lowry, Edward. Americans in the raw. World’s Work. 4: 2644- 
55- O. ’02. 

Finely illustrated descriptive article of immigrant types upon arrival 
in New York. 

Loyalty of foreign-born miners. Coal Age. 14:189-90. Jl. 25, 
’18. 

♦MacBrayne, L. E. How immigrants solve the cost of living. 

World’s Work. 19:12813-15. Ap. ’10. 

MacDonald, E. S. Helping them to help themselves; work of 
the physically handicapped, il. House Beautiful. 41: 18-19. 
D. ’16. 

McKenzie, Fayette Avery. Assimilation of the American Indian. 

American Journal of Sociology. 19:761-72. My. ’14. 

Make the Fourth of July, 1915, Americanization Day. American 
City. 12:492-3. Je. ’15. 

Making of Americans. Editorial. Outlook. 74:969-71. Ag. 22, 
’ 03 - 

♦Making the foreign-born one of us. Survey. 40:213-15. My. 
25, ’18. 

Making use of the alien. American Machinist. 48:637. Ap. 11, 
’18. Discussion. A. Ellsworth. 48:810. My. 9, ’18. 

Mason, Gregory. Americans first; how the people of Detroit 
are making Americans of the foreigners in their city. il. 
Outlook. 114:193-201. S. 27, ’16. 

—. An Americanization factory; an account of what the pub¬ 
lic schools of Rochester are doing to make Americans of 
foreigners, il. Outlook. 112:439-48. F. 23, ’16. 

Max, William D. I am an immigrant. Immigrants in America 
Review. 1: 50. Ja. ’16. 

Mayo-Smith, Richmond. Assimilation of nationalities in the 
United States. Political Science Quarterly. 9:426-444. S. 

1894. 

Stresses the effect of physical environment in the process of assimilation. 
Mayper, Joseph. Americanizing immigrant homes. Immigrants 
in America Review. 11:2:54-60. Jl. ’16. 


xl 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Michaud, G., and F. H. Giddings. Coming race of America. 
Century. 65:683-92. Mr. ’03. 

A study of the ethnic composition of immigration to the United 
States. 

Miller, Gustave. Americanization of immigrants. Outlook. 121: 
630-1. Ap. 16, ’19. 

Miller, H. A. School and the immigrant. Cleveland education 
survey. Survey commission. Cleveland Foundation, Cleve¬ 
land, O. 102 p. ’16. 25c. 

Contains: Cleveland as a foreign city; school children from non- 
English speaking homes; efforts of national groups to preserve their lan¬ 
guages; characteristics of national groups; problem of education for the 
foreign children; adult immigrant and the school. 

Mitchell, Mrs. W. S. Americanization. Child-Welfare Maga¬ 
zine. 13:183-4. Mr. ’19. 

Morley, Felix. Making Americans. Nation. 108:878. My. 31, 
’19. 

The Americanization conference at Washington. 

My mother and I; a story of how I became an American woman. 

vide E. G. Stern, il. Ladies’ Home Journal. 33:21-2. O. ’16. 
Nation-wide Americanization plan. American Machinist. 48: 
752. My. 2, ’18. 

New York State and the Americanization problem. School and 
Society. 3: 776. My. 27, ’16. 

Nichols, David W. Bristol’s Americanization campaign. Amer¬ 
ican City. 16:387. Je. ’17. 

Account by the executive secretary of the Briston chamber of com¬ 
merce. 

O’Connor, Alice W. Americanization work as a field for college 
women. Intercollegiate Community Service Quarterly. 4:3~5. 
Ja. ’19. 

* 01 d stock and new. Editorial. Outlook. 107:334-5. Je. 13,’14. 
Oskison, J. M. Why am I an American? World’s Work. 29: 
209-13. D. ’14. 

Other side of Americanization. Americanization. 1:6. Jl. 1, ’19. 
Our foreign-born citizens. National Geographic Magazine. 31: 
95-130. F. ’17. 

Highly illustrated with charts, diagrams, and exceptionally good pho¬ 
tographs of immigrant groups and individuals in native costume. 

Overdoing free education. Public. 22:623. Je. 14, ’19. 

Pageant’s function in Americanization. Americanization. 17. 
Je. 1, ’19. 

Perlman, Phyllis. Success at forty. Jewish Immigration Bulle¬ 
tin. 9:11-14. F. ’19. 

Personal story of a Roumanian Jew. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xli 


Peyser, Nathan. Co-operating with the immigrant. Jewish Im¬ 
migration Bulletin. 9:12-15. My. ’19. 

Preparedness through education. School and Society. 5:499- 
500. Ap. 28, ’17. 

Price, C. L. Angel of the roundheads: copper country of Michi¬ 
gan. World’s Work. 26:349-52. Jl. ’13. 

Psychology of nationalizing foreign mind. Education. 25:269. 
Ja. ’05. 

Radosavljevich, P. R. Changes' in bodily form in descendants 
of immigrants. Science, n.s. 35 : 821-4. My. 24, ’12. 

Rating the nations: a study in the statistics of opinion. Amer¬ 
ican Journal of Sociology. 22:381-90. N. *16. 

Critique of the report of Professor Franz Boas on this subject to 
the U. S. Immigration Commission, 1910. Claims that Professor Boas 
makes unwarranted conclusions in stating that even the shape of the 
head undergoes far-reaching changes in type due to the new environ¬ 
ment; a new theory which is not justified by his own figures and is not 
based on scientific methods and on the required technic of experimental 
physical anthropology. 

Ravage, M. E. Absorbing the alien. Century. 95 :26-36. N. ’17. 
—. American in the making. Harper. 135:111-25. Je. ’17. 

Vivid autobiographical account of the Americanization process by a 
Russian Hebrew. 

—. Immigrant’s burden. New Republic. 19:209-11. Je 14, ’19. 
—. Immigrant’s luck. Harper. 134:837-48. My. ’17. 

—. Loyalty of the foreign born. Century. 94:201-9. Je. ’17. 

Attitude of a young Russian Hebrew toward the war. Interesting as 
showing “a certain attitude of condescension in foreigners,” once noted 
by Lowell. 

—. My plunge into the slums. Harper. 134:658-65. Ap. ’17. 

—. Prophet from America. Harper. 134:388-95. F. ’17. 

—. Standardizing the immigrant. New Republic. 19:145-7. 
My. 31, ’19. 

Scores our treatment of the alien. 

—. Task for Americans. New Republic. 19:349-51. Jl. 16, ’19. 
—. To America on foot. Harper. 134: 479-86. Mr. ’17. 

The foregoing papers have just been published in book form under 
the title “An American in the Making.” New York. Harper. 1917. $1.40. 

Read, Elizabeth. Gentle art of alienating aliens. Immigrants in 

America Review. 1: 70-9. S. ’15. 

Outlines the legal status of the immigrant in the various states. 
Repplier, A. Modest Immigrant. Atlantic. 116:303-12. S. ’15. 

Rigorous protest against the attitude of condescension of the recent 
immigrant toward the native-born American. 

Remnitz, Virginia Yeaman. Story of Senate bill 54^45 the 
Smith-Bankhead Americanization bill. North American Re¬ 
view. 210:203-11. Ag. ’19. 


xlii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Richmon, Viola. Work Among the Poles. Immigrants in Amer¬ 
ica Review. 11:2:65-6. Jl. T6. 

Riis, Jacob A. Man who is an immigrant. Survey. 25:868-9. 
F. 18, ’ll. 

Rindge, F. H. Jr. Seeking men and finding God. il. Missionary 
Review. 39:509-16. Jl. ’16. 

Ripley, William Z. The European population of the United 
States. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of 
Great Britain and Ireland. London. 38:221-40. ’08. 

—. Race progress and immigration. Annals of the American 
Academy. 130-8. Jl. ’09. 

Roberts, Peter. Anthracite coal communities. New York. Mac¬ 
millan. 1904. $3.50. 

—. Employment of girls in textile industries of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia. American Academy of Political and Social Sci¬ 
ence. Station B. 1904. 15c. 

—. Immigrant races in North America. New York. Y. M. C. A. 
1910. 109 p. 75c. paper 50c. 

Robbins, Jane E. The foreign-born American. Outlook. 83: 
891-3. Ag. 18, ’08. 

Brief appreciation of the newcomer. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Americanism and Americanization; selec¬ 
tions from writings. Carnegie Library of Pittsburg Monthly 
Bulletin. 24:81-6. F. ’19. 

—. Good citizenship; an address to the boys of the Hill 
School. Je. 9, ’13. Outlook. 104:750-3. Ag. ’13. 

—. Pioneer spirit and American problems. Outlook. 96: 56-60. 
S. 10, To. 

Rosenstein, David. Crucial issue in war-time education—Amer¬ 
icanization. School and Society. 7:631-7. Je. 1, T8. 

Ross, Edward A. Immigrants in politics; the political conse¬ 
quences of immigration. Century. 87:392-8. Ja. ’14. 

Graphic presentation of the results of the combination of the political 
boss and the immigrant. 

—. Lesser immigrant groups in America. Century. 88: 934-40. 
O. ’14. 

—. Racial consequences of immigration. Century. 87:615-22. 
F. ’14. 

This paper by the professor of sociology at the University of Wis¬ 
consin prophesies lamentable consequences to the American people unless 
immigration is restricted. 

*Rumsey, Frances. Racial relations in America. Century. 97: 
781-6. Ap. T9. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xliii 


Rush, Charles E. The man in the yards. Bulletin of the Amer¬ 
ican Library Association. 7:155-9. Je.’13. 

... Librarian of St. Joseph, Mo., public library discusse* modes in which 
libraries may reach the immigrant worker. 

Sarkar, Benoy Kumar. Americanization from the viewpoint of 
young Asia. Journal of International Relations. 10:26-48. 

Jl. ’19. 

Schauffler, R. H. Island of desire. Outlook. 100:666-73. Mr. 
23, ’l2. 

School and Society. 9:720-1. Je. 14, T9. Public Education. 

Same. Survey. 42:403-4. Je. 7, ’19. 

Semple, Helen Merrick. Sin of waste. Missionary Review. 41: 
857-60. N. T8. 

♦Senger, Harry L. American house: auto-Americanization by 
immigrant clubs in an abandoned saloon. Survey. 41 788-90. 
Mr. 1, T9. 

Sherwood, Herbert Francis. Whence came they? Outlook. 88: 
407-15. F. 22, ’08. 

Account of the southern Italian immigration to the United State* 
and to South America. 

Sherwood, M. Our immigrant young and the Anglo-Saxon ideal. 
Forum. 56:317-22. S. T6. 

Simons, Sarah E. Social assimilation in the United States. 
American Journal of Sociology. 7:386-404. N. ’01. 

Assimilation in the United States is facilitated by climate, easy 
intercommunication, education, suffrage. Types of immigrants are analyzed. 
Obstacles to assimilation are enumerated. 

Slabey, Frank. Only American in my family. Ladies’ Home 
Journal. 36:7-8. S. T9. 

Smith, Mary Gove. Raphael in the background. Education. 
39:270-9. Ja. T9. 

Social deterioration of the United States from the stream of 
backward immigrants. Current Opinion. 57:340-1. N. ’14. 
Some facts about aliens in America. Missionary Review. 38: 514. 

Jl. 'IS. 

Spadoni, A. Americanizing Paolo. Outlook. 104:920-6. Ag. 

23, ’13. 

Story of Italian life in America. 

Speranza, G. C. Alien in relation to our laws. Annals of the 
American Academy. 52: 169-76. Mr. '14. 

Sporburg, Mrs Wm. D. Americanization of the foreign-born. 
American Institute of Mining Engineers. Bulletin. I47:sup 
ix-xiv. Mr. ’19. 

Reaching the foreign women through the personal touch. 


xliv 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Sprague, Leslie Willis. Americanization through the motion 
picture. Educational Film Magazine. 2:9. Jl. ’19. 

Stabler, Harry Snowden. She makes Americans. Ladies’ Home 
Journal. 35:114. My. ’18. 

Mrs. Schubert’s work among miner’s wives in West Virginia. 

State and the immigrant. Immigrants in America Review. 11: 
1: 81-2. Ap. ’16. 

Steiner, Edward A. Americanizing New York. Review of Re¬ 
views. 59:517-20. My. ’19. 

—. American spirit that overcomes race prejudice. Current 
Opinion. 57:417-18. D. ’14. 

Professor Steiner’s plea as an immigrant himself to America is for 
strengthening the one power which he has found most potent in shaping 
his own life and the lives of others—‘‘the spirit of democracy, which 
basically is supreme confidence in men.” 

Review of Edward A. Steiner’s “From Alien to Citizen.” 

—. Face of the nation. Survey. 37:126-7. N. 4, ’16. 

—. His, mine, and ourn. Outlook. 99:277-9. S. 30, ’11. 

Story of American assimilation. 

—. Slavic World, syllabus. Chicago. University of Chicago. 10c. 
Steiner, L. Our recent immigrants as farmers. Review of Re¬ 
views. 49:342-5. Mr. ’14. 

Stern, E. G. My mother and I. New York. Macmillan. 1917. $1 

The story of the Americanizing of a young Russian Polish girl in the 
ghetto of an American city. 

Stone, A. H. The mulatto factor in the race problem. Atlantic 
Monthly. My. ’03. 

*Taft, William Howard. American education in the Philippines; 
—a contrast to English and Dutch colonial policies. Educa¬ 
tional Review. 29:264-85. Mr. ’05. 

Talbot, Winthrop. The alien and the industrial worker. Iron 
Age. 430-1. Ag. 23, ’17. 

Some of the effects of war. Strife creates a kindlier feeling for men 
of other lands. Summary of requirements for Americanization. 

*—. The faith that is in us. Forum. 58:613-618. N. ’17. 

A review of the stages of growth of Americanism, the extension of 
the American ideal of unity and service through the mechanism of the 
free public school, the free public library, and the free press. The results 
of Americanism is implanted in other lands by emmigrants returning from 
America to their homes. 

Taylor, Graham. Distribution and assimilation of immigrants. 

Conference of Charities and Correction. 26:36. ’13. 
Teaching immigrants and illiterates. Elementary School Journal. 
18:729-32. Je. ’18. 

Thomas, Calvin. Making the melting-pot melt. Columbia Uni¬ 
versity Quarterly. 20:214-24. Jl. ’18. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xlv 


To study the immigrant on a large scale. Survey. 40:96. Ap. 
27, ’18. 

Tobenkin, Elias. The immigrant and the city. Metropolitan 
Magazine. D. T6. 

Reprinted in American Industries, 17:28. Ja. ’17, under title “Fos¬ 
tering a scorn of America through neglect of the immigrant.” 

*Torbert, John B. Meaning of the American flag. Address 
to the Department of the Interior. June, 1915. 

Townsend, M. L. Value of music in Americanizing the alien. 

Public. 22: 349-50. Ap. 5, ’19. 

Uncle Sam’s interpreters. Survey. 42:220-1. My 3, ’19. 

Division of work with the Foreign born of the Committee on 
Public Information, its value as an official intermediary between the 
immigrant, foreign language press, and the government. 

Unpaid war debt; obligation to coke oven toilers. World Out¬ 
look. 5:2-3. Ja. ’19. 

Van Rensselaer, L. C. Protection of immigrant women. Forum. 
56:469-75. O. ’i6. 

Villard, Oswald Garrison. Karl Bitter, American: An apprecia¬ 
tion. Survey. 34:112-13. My. 1, T5. 

A tribute to a great American sculptor of Austrian birth, with four 
excellent page illustrations for his work. 

Waid, Eva Clark. Americanization—the duty of haste. Mis¬ 
sionary Review. 41 :8i8-20. N. ’18. 

Ward, Robert De C. Americanization and immigration. Review 
of Reviews. 59:512-16. My. ’19. 

Warne, F. J. Tide of Immigration. Review. Nation. 104:104-5. 
Ja. 25, ’17. 

Washington, Booker T. Rural Negro community, The. Annals 
of the American Academy. 40:81-9. Mr. ’12. 

Study by the late Principal of Tuskegee Institute. 

Wasted heritage; the immigrant’s contribution to American art. 
Survey. 42:361. My. 31,’19. 

Welliver, Judson C. Campaign to absorb the alien in America. 

Printers’ Ink. 103:3-6, 121-8. Je. 6, T8. 

*Weyl, Walter E. New Americans. Harper’s Magazine. 129: 
615-22. S. ’14. 

What America means to a Russian Jewess. Immigrants in 
America Review. 1: 70-1. Ja. ’16. 

Essay by a young immigrant on Americanization. 

What the conference developed about Americanization: digest of 
program addresses made before conference of Americaniza¬ 
tion specialists and workers held in Washington May 12-15. 
Americanization. Conference Supplement. 1:1-11. Je. 1, ’iQ- 


xlvi 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Wheaton, H. H. Making real Americans out of many races. 

Review of Reviews. 58:161-6. Ag. T8. 

*—. Survey of adult immigration. Immigrants in America 
Review. 1:42-65. Je. ’15. 

Comprehensive statement of present methods of Americanization by 
the specialist in immigrant e ’ucation of the United States Bureau of 
Education. 

Whelpley, James Davenport. iTaturalised American. Fort¬ 
nightly Review. 108^594-603. O. ’17. 

Same. Living Age. 295:387-94. N. 17, ’17. 

^Whitman, Charles Seymour. Address before the Americaniza¬ 
tion Committee in Schenectady. Immigrants in America Re¬ 
view. 2:51-4. Ap. ’16. 

Willey, Day Allen. Americans in the making; New England’s 
method of assimilating the alien. Putnam's magazine. 5 : 456- 
63. Ja. ’09. 

Account of the French-American College in Worcester, Mass. 
Williams, Hattie Plum. The road to citizenship. Political Sci¬ 
ence Quarterly. 27: 399-427. S. ’12. 

Study of naturalization in a Nebraska county. 

Winkler, H. Immigrant girls. Survey.* 37: 363. D. 30, T6. 
Winslow, John Kenelin. Your Chinese neighbors. World Out¬ 
look. 4:9+. Ag. T8. 

Winter, Kathlene B. Made-in-America democracy. World Out¬ 
look. 4:24-5. N. ’18. 

Wisconsin town erects community house to promote American¬ 
ism. American Lumberman. 2253:39+. Jl. 20, T8. 

*Wise, Stephen S. Address at Young People’s Meeting of 
National Arbitration and Peace Congress. New York, 1907. 
Wolfson, Arthur M. Men of a hundred races. Independent. 
93:3I2-I3- F. 23, '18. 

—. Stranger within our gates. Independent. 94:25. Ap. 6, T8. 
Woods, F. A. Racial origin of successful Americans. Popular 
Science Monthly. 84:397-402. Ap. ’14. 

Yezierska, Anzia. Soap and water and the immigrant. New 
Republic. 18:117-19. F. 22, ’19. 

An immigrant girl’s effort to find the higher life in America. 
Youngstown, and Americanization. Editorial. Outlook. 112: 
168. Ja. 26, T6. 

An indictment of the native American. 

Your government of the United States: making new Americans. 
World’s Work. 32:30-3. My. ’16. 

Account of the work of the United States bureau of naturalization. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xlvii 


Yust,.William F. What of the Black and Yellow Races? Ad¬ 
dress at the 35th annual meeting of the A. L. A. Kaaterskill, 
N.Y. June 1913—published in Papers & Proceedings of the 
American Library Association. Chicago. 1913. 159-67. 

Paper concerning Americanization of the negro through public libra¬ 
ries, by the present librarian of the Rochester, N. Y., public library, 
formerly librarian in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Znaniecki, Florian. Social attitudes* of the peasant and the prob¬ 
lem of his Americanization. Immigrants in America Review. 
2:32-8. Jl. ’16. 

Read at the conference of Polish social workers, Indianapolis, May n, 
1916. 


AGENCIES 

Nezvspapers and magazines 

American Leader, The. 908-912 Woolworth Building, New York. 

Published the second and fourth Thursdays of each month in the 
interests of the foreign-born population by the American Association of 
Foreign Language Newspapers. $2. Editors: Louis N. Hammerling, 
Armour Caldwell, Ira E. Bennett. 

The total number of newspapers comprising this association is 742. 
These papers are published in 35 States and are printed in 30 languages. 
The total sworn circulations of these newspapers are over 8,000,000; their 
combined capital is $27,000,000. The total foreign-speaking population 
reached is, according to the United States Census of-igio, over 32,000,000. 

Americanization. Published by the United States Bureau of 
Education, Department of the Interior, Americanization Divi¬ 
sion. Washington, D.C. 

Immigration Journal. W. W. Husband, editor. Published by the 
Immigration Journal Company, Washington, D.C. 

A monthly magazine devoted exclusively to immigration and closely 
related subjects. Its purpose is to discuss impartially all phases of immi¬ 
gration, including immigration after the war and Oriental immigration; to 
present without prejudice current information on the immigration move¬ 
ment and the immigrant as a factor in the population of the United States; 
to report the activities of the federal government with relation to immi¬ 
gration and naturalization; the progress of immigration legislation in Con¬ 
gress; the acts of state and municipal governments concerning aliens; the 
work of the various organizations interested in immigration and immi¬ 
grants, and court decisions relative to all phases, and to support every 
movement that is sensibly and honestly directed to Americanizing the 
immigrants and developing the best that is in them. 

Subscription price, $1.00; for foreign countries, $1.25. The first number 
appeared March, 1916. 

Immigrants in America Review. A magazine issued quarterly 
by the Committee for Immigrants in America. N.Y. Editor, 
Frances A. Kellor. Engineering Building, West 39 St., New 
York. $2.; single numbers, 50c. 

The first number, March, 1916, announced the purpose of the ma?«- 
adoption of a national policy with reference to admitted aliens. Six 
numbers were published. 


xlviii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Jewish Immigration Bulletin. Published by the Hebrew Shelter¬ 
ing Aid Society of America, 229-231 East Broadway, New 
York City. 50c. 

GENERAL METHODS 
TECHNIC OF RACE-ASSIMILATION 

Immigrant Education 
SCHOOLS 

Abelson, Paul. Education of the immigrant. Journal of social 
science. 44: 164-72. S. ’06. 

Discussion, pp. 172-4. 

Addams, Jane. The public school and the immigrant child. 

Journal of the National education association. 99-102, 1908. 
Americanism at its source. Literary Digest. 61136. My. 17, '19. 
Americanization: one language, one people. 8p. Massachusetts 
Board of Education. Department of University Extension. 
Bulletin v. 4, no. 4B. July, 1919. 

Outline of course. 

Ballard, Walter J. Adult education in New York City. Journal 
of Education. 68:540-1. N. 19, ’08. 

More than 30,000 foreigners attend these night schools. 

*Becht, John George. The public school and the new American 
spirit. School and society. 3:613-17. Ap. 29, ’16. 

Helpful discussion of the public schools as agents of Americanization, 
by the president of the Pennsylvania State Educational Council. 

Blewett, Ben and Dougan, L. M. The education of adult immi¬ 
grants. Proceedings, National education association, depart¬ 
ment of superintendence, 192-3, 1915. 

*Buchanan, John T. How to assimilate the foreign element in 
our population. Forum. 32:686-94. F. ’02. 

Idem : Schoolmaster’s Association of New York and vicinity, annual 
report, 7-16, 1901-03. Study of Americanization through compulsory public 
schooling by the headmaster of the De Witt Clinton High School, New 
York City. 

Braun, W. A. University in Americanization. Columbia Uni¬ 
versity Quarterly. 21 '.244-7. Jl. ’19. 

Brelsford, Charles H. The foreign child in the public school. 

Pennsylvania school journal. 56:560-3. Je.’08. 

Brewer, Edith Terry. Education for immigrant women. Edu¬ 
cational Foundations. 27:289-97. Ja. ’16. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


xlix 


Brooks, William E. One way to cure hyphenism. Outlook. 
120:632. D. 18, ’18. 

The story of Dubuque College. 

Chancellor, William Estabrook. Temperament and the educa¬ 
tion of foreigners and of their children for American citizen¬ 
ship. Educational Foundations. 24:196-209; 260-75; 3 2 5"39I 
390-94; D. T2; Ja., F., Mr., ’13. 

*Claxton, Philander, P. Educating a nation. Independent. 87: 
224. Aug. 14, ’16. 

— . Immigration after the war. Social Service Review. 3:10- 
20. F. ’i6. 

Shows need of educating immigrants for citizenship. 

Cody, Frank. Americanization courses in the public schools. 

English Journal. 7:615-22. D. ’18. 

—. Annual report, Detroit Americanization and evening high 
schools. In Michigan. Superintendent of Public Instruc¬ 
tion. 18th annual report. 1916-17. p. 92-100. 1917. 

Cohen, Helen Louise. Americanization by classroom practice. 

Teachers College Record. 20:238-49. My. ’19. 

—. The foreigner in our school; some aspects of the problem 
in New York. English Journal. 2:618-29. D. ’13. 

Read at the spring meeting of the New England Association of 
teachers of English. * 

Colgrove, P. P. Night schools of the Iron Range of Minnesota. 
Immigrants in America Review. 1:65-9. Ja. T6. 

An evaluation of methods used in night schools. 

Crampton, C. Ward. The Americanizing influence of the public 
school. In Society for the promotion of social service. The 
immigrant and the community. New York. 1910. p. 74-6. 
*Crist, Raymond Fowler. Education of foreigners for Amer¬ 
ican citizenship. National Association, 1916:1045-8. 

— . The education of foreigners for American citizenship. Na¬ 
tional education association; department of superintendence, 
Proceedings. 155-8. 1916. 

Crone, Frank L. Educating the Filipino people; an episode in 
American history. Indiana Instructor. 1:27-31. Mr. ’17. 

The late director of education for the Philippine Islands tells of the 
development of the school system there at the meeting of the American 
Historical Association, Cincinnati, O., Dec. 30, 1916. 

Darr, Irene. The little alien. Pennsylvania school journal. 62: 
421-4. Mr. ’14. 

Davies, George R. Americanization program for the schools. 
Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota. 9: 
337 - 50 . Jl. ' 19 . 


1 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Dine, Herman B. School center and the immigrant. Play¬ 
ground. 10:456-61. F. T7. 

Educating the alien. Educational Review. 53:538-40- My. ’17. 
Educating the immigrant for citizenship, il. Review of Re¬ 
views. 53:79-80. Ja. ’16. 

Educating the immigrants. World’s Work. 31:6oo-i. Ap. ’16. 
Education and protection for immigrants. Survey. 37:669-70. 
Mr 10, T7. 

Education of adult immigrants; symposium. National Education 
Association. 1915:439-45. 

Education of the immigrant. Editorial. Elementary School 
Teacher. 14:261-3. F. T4. 

Education of the immigrants. United States. Bureau of Educa¬ 
tion. Bulletin. 1917. No. 46. p. 531-69. 

Agencies of education in San Francisco. Suggests some reasons for 
the failure of evening classes. 

Ettinger, William L. Americanization. School and Society. 
9:129-33. F. 1, ’19. 

Fairman, Charles G. College trained immigrants: a study of 
Americans in the making. New England Magazine, n.s. 42: 

577-84. Jl- ’10. 

Account of the work of the American International College at Spring- 
field, Mass., in equipping immigrants who are teachers, professional men, 
or engaged in commercial or industrial pursuits to become trained leaders. 

Falkner, Roland P. Immigration and education. Cyclopedia of 
education, edited by P. Monroe, v. 3:390-6. New York. 
Macmillan. 1912. 

Bibliographical references. 

Farrington, F. E. Campaign for Americanization. School and 
Society. 3 : 862-4. Je. 10, ’16. 

A discussion of evening and day classes for teaching English to for¬ 
eigners, and account of evening schools for aliens in California. 

—. Public facilities for educating the alien. United States 
bureau of education. Bulletin 18, 1916. 51 p. Washington. 
Government printing office, 1916. 

Ferris, C. Los Angeles example; education of the immigrant. 
Review of Reviews. 53:81-2. Ja. I16. 

First graduates of a shop school. Survey. 32:295. Je. 13, ’14. 

The first public school class for adult workers in a factory or place 
of employment—the Sicher undermuslin factory. 

Fitzpatrick, A. Swingteam boss: school in the construction camp 
of the railroads. World’s Work. 27:698-702. Ap. T4. 

Gard, Eva D. The foreign pupil. Journal of education. 67: 
683-4. Je. 18, ’08. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


li 


Gaus, John Merriman. Municipal program for educating immi¬ 
grants in citizenship. National Municipal Review. 7:237-44. 
My. T8. 

Getting the grown-up to school. Survey. 41: 903-4. Mr. 22, ’19. 
Getting the immigrant child to school. American City. 13: 323. 
O. ’15. 

Gibson, Mary S. Member, California Commission on Immigra¬ 
tion and Housing. The education of immigrant women in 
California. Immigrants in America Review. 1:2: 13-17. Je. 
I5 ' 

Hoose, J. H. Educational problems of Americanizing immi¬ 
grants. Education. 25:269-78. Ja. ’05. 

—. Psychology of nationalizing foreign mind, or the educational 
problem of Americanizing immigrants. Education. 25:269- 
78. Ja. ’05. 

Professor of psychology of the University of Southern California sum¬ 
marizes the situation. 

Howerth, Joseph. The foreign child in the public schools. Penn¬ 
sylvania School Journal. 56:558-60. Je. ’08. 

Hoyt, Margaret Helen. Making Americans in Minnesota. Ed¬ 
ucational Review. 58:15-20. Je ’19. 

Immigrant aid, Americanization program; Study in literary 
Americanization program. 8p. and iop. Council of Jewish 
Women. Department of Immigrant Aid, 146 Henry St., New 
York. 1918. 

Immigrant education. In California Commission of Immigration 
and Housing. 2d annual report, 1916, p. 118-96. 

Discusses English education, citizenship education, labor camp educa¬ 
tion, home education for women. 

Immigrant education. School and Society. 4:397-8. S. 9, T6. 
’•‘Immigrant education; with bibliography. New York (state) 
University. Bulletin 681. 2ip. Mr. 1, T9. 

Johnson, Mary Elliott. Helping men to help themselves; exten¬ 
sion course in English for foreigners. English Journal. 6: 
613-14. N. T7. 

Kellor, Frances A. Education of the immigrant. Educational 
Review. 48:21-36. Je. T4. 

Comprehensive survey and plan of schooling for immigrants. 

—. Who is responsible for the immigrant? il. Outlook. 106: 
912-17. Ap. 25, T4. 

Lenz, F. B. Education of the immigrant: education of immi¬ 
grant adults and evening schools for foreigners. Educational 
Review. 51 • 469 - 77 - My. T 6 . 


lii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Loeb, Max. Compulsory English for foreign-born. Survey. 
40:426-7. Jl. 13, T8. 

Nine principles advocated for places of employment. 

Mahoney, John Joseph, and Herlihy, Charles M. First steps in 
Americanization; a handbook for teachers. 143P. *7 5 C - 
Houghton Mifflin Co., New York. 1918. 

May, Ellen. Italian education and immigration. Education. 28: 
450-53. Mr. ’08. 

Miller, Herbert A. School and the immigrant. (Cleveland edu¬ 
cation survey.) 102 p. T6. 25c. Survey com., Cleveland 

found., Cleveland, O. 

Contains: Cleveland as a foreign city; School children from non- 
English speaking homes; Efforts of national groups to preserve their 
languages; Characteristics of national groups; Problem of education for 
the foreign children; Adult immigrant and the school. 

Minckley, Loren Stiles. Americanization through education. 
304P. $2. L. S. Minckley, Supt. of Public Schools, Frontenac, 
Kan. 1917. 

Moorhead, Elizabeth. School for Italian laborers. Outlook. 
88:499-504. F. 29, ’08. 

Moskowitz, Henry. Place of the immigrant child in the social 
program. Child in City. pp. 257-69. 

Mumford, Mary E. The public school and the immigrant. Child 
Welfare Magazine. 4: 226-9. Ap. To. 

New Americanism. Review of Reviews. 59:656. Je. T9. 

Recruit educational center at Camp Upton. 

New approach to Americanization work. Outlook. 122:459-60. 
Jl. 23, T9. 

Orcutt, Hortense M. Training of the immigrant child. Southern 
Education Quarterly. 1: 56-61. Ja. ? o8. 

In the kindergarten. 

Pinkham, C. Educate the immigrant. Outlook. 99:384-7. O. 
14, Ti. 

Prince, J. D. Educating the adult immigrant. Charities. 17: 
890-1. F. 16, ’07. 

♦Rector, Lizzie C. A workers’ class of illiterate girls. Wash¬ 
ington. U. S. bureau of education, Bulletin 35, 1916. 
Richman, Julia. The immigrant child. National Education As¬ 
sociation. Journal. 113-21. 1905. 

Rockow, L. Americanization and the pillar of Democracy. Edu¬ 
cation. 37:174-83. N. T6. 

The “pillar of democracy” is the school. This paper is an analysis 
of American schooling by an immigrant graduate of the public school. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


liii 


Rumball, Edwin A. Participating Americans: the story of one 
year’s work for the Americanization of Buffalo. i6p. Civic 
Education Association. Buffalo, N.Y. 1917. * 

Sanville, F. L. Unemployment, education and the immigrant's 
chances in Pennsylvania today, il. Survey. 34:118-20. My. 
h ’ 15 . 

Schuster, Sarah J. The foreigner and the free evening school. 

Normal Instructor. 22:14. My. ’13. 

—. What the evening school is doing for the immigrant. Jour¬ 
nal of Education. 79:261-3. Mr. 5, T4. 

Shaw, Adele Marie. Evening schools for foreigners. World's 
Work. 9: 5738 - 44 - Ja. ’05. 

Shiels, Albert. Editor. The school and the immigrant. 

Vide. New York City. 

Sleszynski, Thaddeus and Amine. Leadership in Americaniza¬ 
tion. Survey. 42:746-7. Ag. 23, ’19. 

Urges scholarships for training in group leaderships. 

Smith, Mary Gove. Foreign child and the teacher. Education. 
38:504-7. Mr. ’18. 

Sternberger, E. M. Gary and the foreigner’s opportunity. Sur¬ 
vey. 42:480-2. Je. 28, ’19. 

Stoek, H. H. Education of mine employees. Illinois Miners’ and 
Mechanics’ Institutes, Bulletin 1, published by the University 
of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 

Straubenmiiller, Gustave. The work of the New York schools 
for the immigrant class. Journal of Social Science. 44: 175- 
82. S. ’06. 

Discussion, pp. 182-4. 

Suggestions for humanizing immigrant education. Immigrants 
in America Review. 1:2:66-67. Je. ’15. 

Switzer, C. F. Larger plans for Americanizing the foreigner. 
Elementary School Journal. 19 - 367 - 74 - Ja. ’i 9 - 
The factory class supervised by the Board of education. 

*Talbot, Winthrop. The workers’ class. Washington. U. S. 

bureau of education. Bulletin 35. 1916. 

Teaching English to adult women. Survey. 41:873; 42 :i$ 6 . Mr. 
15, Ap. 26, '19. 

Women’s Municipal League of Boston. 

To educate the immigrant for citizenship. Literary Digest. 52: 
903. Ap. 1, T6. 


liv 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Tully, Francis W. Chamber and the alien; and Thompson, 
Frank V. Americanization in schools. Current Affairs (Bos¬ 
ton). 10:12, 16, 68. Je. 30, ’19. 

Vaughan, J. The evening schools of Chisholm, Minn. Immi¬ 
grants in America Review. 2:83-4. Ap. ’16. 

Wheaton, Henry H. America First—National Publicity Bu¬ 
reau, N. T6. 

—. The ‘America First’ Campaign of the Bureau of Education. 
— Messenger, State Federation of Pennsylvania Women, N. T6. 
—The National Magazine, N. ’16 .—Immigrants in America 
Review. N. ’16 .—Immigration Journal S. ’16 .—American 
Leader, S. ’16. 

—. Education of immigrants. In United States Bureau of 
education, 1914. p. 425-54. Report of the Commissioner, 
1916. p. 339 - 51 . 

—. How the Federal Government is Helping Community Amer¬ 
icanization .—Town Development, Mr. ’17. 

—. How Uncle Sam is Securing Educational Facilities For His 
Immigrants .—American Leader, O. T6. 

—. Immigrant Education, Chapter in the Commissioner of Edu¬ 
cation’s Annual Report, 1916. 

—. Libraries and the ‘America First’ Campaign.—Three library 
magazines. N. ’16. 

—. The Non-English-Speaking Employee and Fire and Acci¬ 
dent Prevention .—Fire Engineer, November, 1916. 

—. Recent progress in the education of immigrants. In Report 
of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1914: 1: 
425 - 54 . 

Contains: i. The problem; legislation affecting immigrant education; 

special administrative features; content of English instruction; methods 

of teaching; private agencies and immigrant education; special organiza¬ 
tions; adult immigrant education in Canada. 

—. Same. Reprinted. 425-54. ’17. U. S. bureau of education. 

—. United States Bureau of Education and Americanization.— 
New Jersey Educational Bulletin, October, 1916. 

—. United States Bureau of Education and the immigrant. In 
Annals of the American Academy. 67: 273-83. 

—. The Work of the Division of Immigrant Education.—Penn, 
sylvania Department of Labor Bulletin, S. T6. 

Winkler, Helen. Laggards at night school; factory classes es¬ 
sential for Americanization. Survey. 39:462-3. Ja. 26, T8. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


lv 


LIBRARIES 

’•‘American Library Association: statement on enlarged program. 
Americanization by the public library. Survey. 41: 537-8. Ja. 
18, ’19. 

Americanization movement helped on by the library. Brooklyn 
Public Library Bulletin. 11 77-81. F. ’19. 

Bailey, Arthur L. How shall the library help the working man. 
Library Journal. 32:198-201. My. ’07. 

Hints to librarians. 

Books in foreign languages. Library Journal. 30:808. ’05. 

A. L. A. discussion at Lake Placid by R. R. Bowker, Isabel E. Lord, 
J. F. Carr, Miss A. Van Valkenburgh, Grace D. Rose, Mr. Anderson, 
Miss Avery, Miss Coit 

Borreson, Lily M. E. Foreign books in the public library. Min¬ 
nesota Public Library Commission Notes. 3:111. S. Ti. 
Bostwick, Arthur E. Books for the foreign population. Library 
Journal. 31:67-70. ’06. 

Address at conference of librarians, Narragansett Pier, June, 1906. 
Account of the circulation of foreign books in the branches of the 
N. Y. Public Library by the chief of circulation department. 

Britton, Jasmine. Library’s share in Americanization. Library 

Journal. 43 723 - 7 - O. ’18. 

Buchner, D. University of Alabama. The free public library 
and the industrial community. Alabama Library Assoc. 
Pamphlet. Referred to in Library Journal. 33:22. Ja.’08. 

Influence of libraries on industrial classes in America and Europe. 
Statistics p. 100. 

Campbell, J. Maud. Director. Work with foreigners, Massachu¬ 
setts Free Library Commission. Americanizing books and 
periodicals for immigrants. American Library Association 
Bulletin. 10:269-72. Jl. T6. 

—. An educational opportunity and the library. Library 
Journal. 32:157-8. Ap. ’o7. 

Former librarian of Passaic, N. J., discusses needs of aliens and 
methods of Americanization. Important early contribution. Suggestions 
relating to teaching reading, writing, use of English, and citizenship. 

—. Books for the foreign population. Library Journal. 31: 
71-2. ’06. Address at Conference of Librarians, Narragansett 
Pier, June, 1906. 

A paper by the librarian of the Passaic Public Library suggesting a 
state library commission “to investigate the general condition of non- 
English speaking residents with a view to their education and enlighten¬ 
ment upon the principles and policy of our government and institutions 
and the rights and opportunities of its citizens.” 


lvi 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


—. Foreign periodicals. Massachusetts Library Club Bulletin, 
no. 4, p. 67-9. Mr.-My. ’14. 

Reprinted as pamphlet by Massachusetts Free Public Library Com¬ 
mission. 

—. The public library and the immigrant. New York Libraries. 
1: 100-5 5 132-6. Jl. ’08. 

Detailed suggestions to librarians on pp. 132-6 concerning selection 
and buying of books for immigrant readers: Bohemian, Dutch, Hun¬ 
garian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Solvak, Yiddish, and Hebrew. 

—. Supplying books in foreign languages in public libraries. 
Library Journal. 29:65-7. ’04. 

An instructive account of work with foreigners in Passaic, N. J. 

—. What the foreigner has done for one library. Passaic, N.J. 
Public Library. Library Journal. 38:610-15. N. T3. 
Reprinted from the Massachusetts Library Club Bulletin for July, 
1913. Important contribution. 

Canfield, James Hulme. Books for the foreign population. Li¬ 
brary Journal. 31: 65-7. ’06. Address at Conference of Li¬ 
brarians, Narragansett pier, June, 1906. 

A working plan by the librarian of Columbia University for libraries 
to reach the alien. 

—. The service of the library in making new Americans. Li¬ 
brary Journal. 30:808. ’05. 

Brief discussion of the relation of the library to the alien. 

Carr, John Foster. Books in foreign languages and Americaniza¬ 
tion. Library Journal. 44:245-6. Ap. T9. 

—. Immigrant and library; Italian helps; with lists of selected 
books. New York. Immigrant Education Society. 1914. 
93 P- 35c. 

This volume is the first of a series intended to help librarians and 
others in the selection of suitable literature in the immigrant’s own tongue. 
The books listed are grouped by subject, after which they are alphabetically 
arranged by authors unless published anonymously. Following the au¬ 
thor's name are the title, the name (in Italian) of the place of publica¬ 
tion, and the publisher’s name, the date of edition, brief bibliographical 
description, and the price in Italian money. There is also a short annotated 
list of the best Italian periodicals and newspapers, with a brief intro¬ 
ductory survey of Italian periodical literature. 

—. The library and the immigrant. American Library Asso¬ 
ciation; Proceedings of the Washington conference, 140-6, 
T4. Chicago. 78 East Washington St. 1914. 

—. Some of the people we work for. New York. Immigrant 
Publication Society. 1916. 

Address delivered before the American Library Association, Asbury 
Park, N. J., June 29, ’16. 

—. What the library can do for our foreign-born. Library 
Journal. 38:566-8. O. T3. 

Suggestive and helpful account of library work with aliens in Mt. 
Vernon, N. Y. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


lvii 


Chicago Library Club. Reaching the foreign peoples in Chicago. 
Library Journal. 40:273-4. Ap. ’15. 

Brief of addresses by Grace Abbott, director of the Immigrants’ Pro¬ 
tective League of Chicago, and by Henry E. Legler, librarians of the 
Chicago Public Library. 

Churchill, Winston. Mission of the public library. Library Jour¬ 
nal. 28:115. ’03. 

Comstock, Sarah. Eight million books a year. World’s Work. 
26:100-8. 

Describes activities of the New York Public Library, including work 
with foreigners. 

Countryman, Gratia. A. Lines of work which a state library 
commission can profitably undertake. American Library As¬ 
sociation, Montreal Conference, 1900. Library Journal. 25: 
51-4. ’00. 

Suggesting work for foreigners and for mining and lumber camps. 
In this article, as secretary of the Minnesota State Library Commission, 
Miss Countryman was one of the first to draw attention to the oppor¬ 
tunity of the library to meet the needs of aliens and labor employed in 
lumber and construction camps. 

—. Shall public libraries buy foreign literature for the benefit 
of the foreign population? Library Journal. 23:229-31. ’98. 
A classic of Americanization, by the # librarian of the Minneapolis 
public library, being one of the earliest important contributions to the 
subject. 

Crawford, Ruth. Immigrants in St. Louis. Studies in social 
economics, published by the St. Louis school of social eco¬ 
nomics, 1: no 2. 

Gives credit to the St. Louis public library for its work in the 
interests of foreign citizens. Referred to in Public Libraries 21:255, Jl. ’16. 

Daggett, M. P. Library’s part in making Americans. Delineator. 
77:17-18. Ja. ’11. 

Ethics of supplying foreign literature to aliens. Editorial. Li¬ 
brary Journal. 19:328. O. ’94. 

This editorial was the cause of much discussion, which greatly stimu¬ 
lated library action in meeting the civic and educational needs of aliens. 

Evans, George Hill. Aids to the technical and industrial worker. 
Library Journal. 34: 100-3. Mr. ’09. 

Deals with the endeavor to help the poor workman to become a good 
workman. 

Extension work in the Detroit public library. Michigan Li¬ 
braries. 1:23. D. ’11. 

Detailed account of methods employed in placing branch and loan 
libraries in industrial plants for the use of workers, with list of twenty- 
one stations, including eleven factories. 

Fiske, A. J. Human interest in library work in a mining district. 
Public Libraries. 13: 78-81. Mr. ’08. 


lviii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Fitzpatrick, Alfred. Lumber camps, Libraries in. Library Ex¬ 
tension in Ontario; traveling libraries and reading camps. 
Small pamphlet issued for author. Nairn Centre, Ontario, 
Canada. 

Review in Library Journal 26:141 and 296, *01. The beginnings of 
this movement. 

Frank, Mary, and Carr, John Foster. Exploring a neighbor¬ 
hood. Century. 98:375-90. Jl. ’19. 

Freeman, Marilla Waite. Louisville Free Public Library. Re¬ 
lation of the library to the outside world or the library and 
publicity. Journal. 33:488-92. D. ’08. 

Gaillard, Edward White. Why public libraries should supply 
books in foreign languages. Library Journal. 28:67. ’03. 
Hansen, Agnes. Work with foreigners. American Library As¬ 
sociation. Proceedings, 1915: 196-9. 

A statement of work with aliens in Seattle, Wash. 

Helps in government and language for immigrants. Public Li¬ 
braries. 16:111-12. Mr. ’ll. 

Hewins, Caroline M. comp. Library notes. Hartford Courant. 
O. 24, ’15. 

Howard, C. E. Carnegie Library of Pittsburg and the foreigner. 

Pennsylvania Library Notes. 3:12-16. O. ’io. 

Hrbek, S. Library and the foreign born citizen. Public Li¬ 
braries. 15 : 98-104. Mr. ’10. 

Hungarian books for public libraries. Library Journal. 29:408. 
’04. 

Industrial possibilities of public libraries: Books for men in shops 
(Dayton, O.). Library Journal. 33:100. Mr. ’08. 

Refers to list of books for workmen in Dayton, Ohio, public library. 

Italian literature in American libraries. Library Journal. 31: 26. 
’06. Treats of an exhibit in Italy relating to all phases of Ital¬ 
ian emigration to the United States. 

Tacobson, Karen M. (Mrs.) What Minnesota does for its for¬ 
eign born citizen. Minnesota Library Commission. Notes. 

1:9, 31. 

Josephson, Aksel G. S. Foreign books in American libraries. 
Library Journal. 19:364. N.’04. 

This letter was written in criticism of an editorial in the Library 
Journal, October, 1894, and was the earliest discoverable communication 
on Americanizing the alien through library activities. 

Kudlicka, J. Library work among foreigners. Public Libraries. 
15 : 375 - 6 . N. ’io. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


lix 


Library work with foreigners. Editorial. Library Journal. 34: 
469. ’09. 

To provide books in foreign languages. 

Library’s part in making Americans. Editorial. New York Li¬ 
braries. 4:235-6. Ag. ’15. 

McPike, Josephine M. The foreign child at a St. Louis branch. 
Library Journal. 40:851-5. D. ’15. 

Study of the Jewish child and the library. 

Maltby, Mrs. Adelaide B. Immigrants as contributors to library 
progress. Address at the 35th annual meeting of the A.L.A. 
Kaaterskill, N.Y. June, 1913. Published in Papers and Pro¬ 
ceedings of the American Library Association. Chicago. 1913. 

p. 150-4. 

Martin, Arabel. Buying of foreign books for small libraries. 

Minnesota Library Commission Notes. 1: 9, 31. 
Massachusetts Free Library Commission. Reports, 1914 and 1915. 
Minard, F. Stranger within the gates. Bookman. 35:497-502. 
Jl. ’l2. 

Moore, Anne Carroll. New York Public Library. Children’s 
books in Bohemian. Library Journal. 34:171. ’09. 

—. N.Y. Public Library. Library membership as a civic force. 
Library Journal. 33 : 269-74. Jl. ’08. 

Suggestions on ways and means of extending the usefulness of the 
library. 

Account of methods for reaching the technical worker. 

Morningstern, William B. Technical department of Free Public 
Library of Newark, N.J. Library Journal. 34: 104-6. Mr. ’09. 
Newark, N.J. Public Library. The Newarker, December 1913. 
—. Welcome extended to foreigners. Sunday Call, Newark, 
N.J. F. 22, ’14. 

Palmer, Margaret. The library and the immigrant. Minnesota 
Library Commission Notes. 2:192-5. D. ’09. 

The librarian, Hibbing Public Library, describes the international 
spirit in library work. 

Patriotism and the public library. Dial. 44:64-5. F. 1, ’08. 
Pennsylvania Free Library Commission. Books for the for¬ 
eigner. Pennsylvania Library Notes. 8: no. 1. p. 7 * J a - * l 6 - 
Persons, W. Frank. Reading for the poor. Library Journal. 
27:245-8. ’02. 

Poray, Aniela. The foreign child and the book. Library Jour¬ 
nal. 40:233-9. Ap. ’15. 

A helpful study of the needs of foreign children. 


lx 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Prescott, Della R. Americanization thru foreign print. Library- 
Journal. 431884-5. D. T8. 

Roberts, Flora B. The library and the foreign citizen. Public 
Libraries. 17:166-9. ’12. 

The librarian of the Public Library, Superior, Wisconsin, outlines 
library activities with foreigners. 

*Roberts, Peter. The library and the foreign-speaking man. 
Library Journal. 36:468-9. ’ll. 

A virile presentation of the needs of the alien worker by the secre¬ 
tary of the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association. 

Robinson, Julia A. Book influences for defectives and depend¬ 
ents. Helping those who cannot help themselves. Address 
at the 35th annual meeting of the A.L.A. Kaaterskill, N.Y. 
June, 1913. Published in Papers and Proceedings of the 
American Library Association, Chicago, 1913. p. 177-82. 
Rush, Charles E. “The Man in the Yards.” Address at the 35th 
annual meeting of the A.L.A. Kaaterskill, N.Y. June, 1913. 
Published in Papers and Proceedings of the American Library 
Association, Chicago. 1913: 154-8. 

A consideration by the librarian of the St. Joseph, Mo., Public 
Library of the relation of the library to the worker. 

Shiels, Albert. The immigrant, the school, and the library. 
American Library Association. Bulletin. 10: no. 4, 257-62. 
Jl. ’16. 

Solis-Cohen, Leon M. Librarian Brownsville Branch, Brooklyn 
Public Library. Library work in the Brooklyn Ghetto. Li¬ 
brary Journal. 33:485-8. D. k>8. 

Comprehensive account by the librarian of the Brownsville Branch, 
Brooklyn Public Library, of work with Jewish aliens hungry for knowledge. 

Stearns, L. E. Books for foreigners. Library Journal. 31: 230. 
’06. Discussion, Conference of Librarians, Narragansett 
Pier, June 1906. 

A brief account of traveling libraries for foreign communities. 
Stevens, Edward F. Industrial literature and the industrial pub¬ 
lic at the Pratt Institute Free Library. Library Journal. 34: 
95-9. Mr. ’09. 

—. How to interest working men in the use of the library. Pub¬ 
lic Libraries. 16:93. ’ll- 

Stevens, W. R. Use of the library by foreigners, as shown by 
the Carnegie Library at Homestead, Pa. Library Journal. 35 : 
161-2. Ap. ’io. 

Excellent account showing variety and extent of library work among 
foreigners in a steel town. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


lxi 


Symposium on library work with foreigners. N.Y. Library As¬ 
sociation week at Sagamore, Lake George, Sept. 20-27, 1909. 
Library Journal. 34:439-40. ’09. 

Mokrejs, Mrs. John, Foreign children in the public library. 
Campbell, J. M., Books for foreign readers. 

Rindge, F. H., Sec’y International Committee, Y. M. C. A., Work 
of the Y. M. C. A. with foreigners. 

Bostwick, A. E., and others. 

University of the State of New York. Home Education Bulle¬ 
tin, no. 31, May, 1900. Public libraries and popular education 
by Herbert B. Adams. Albany. 1900. p. 49-271. 

Webster, Caroline F. Library work with foreigners. American 
Library Association. Proceedings, 1915: 192-5. 

Wendell, F. C. H. Stranger within our gates; what can the li¬ 
brary do for him? Public Libraries. 16:89-92. ’n. 

The Chaplain of the N. Y. Episcopal City Mission gives a useful list 
of useful magazines and papers. 

Wheaton, H. H. An Americanization program for libraries. 
American Library Association. Bulletin. 10: no. 4, 265-68. 
Jl. ’16. 

Wilcox, Mary E. Use of the immigrant guide in the library. 

Massachusetts Library Club Bulletin. 4:69-73. Mr.-My. ’14. 
Wolcott, J. D. Library service to immigrants. U.S. Bureau of 
Education. Report, 1915 : 527-31. 

Excellent summary with statistics. 

Work with foreigners. A new library activity. Public Libraries, 
p. 371. N. '13. 

An outline of the work inaugurated by the Public Library Commis¬ 
sion of Massachusetts among the foreign-born. 

Working men in libraries. Two editorials. Library Journal. 33: 
81-2. Mr. '08. 

Workingmen’s libraries of German. Library Journal. 40:42-3. 
Ja. ’ 15 - 

Account of the growth of libraries of political economy, socialism 
and natural science for the use of workingmen in Germany as contrasted 
with people’s libraries designed chiefly for entertaining; the transplantation 
to Germany of American method. 

Wright, Purd B. The library and the mechanic. Library Journal. 
34:532-8. D. ’09. 

Yust, Wm. F. Librarian Rochester, N.Y. Public Library. What 
of the black and yellow races ? American Library Association. 
Proceedings. 1913:159-67* 

A comprehensive discussion of the library needs of negroes, with con¬ 
clusion regarding libraries for negroes. 


lxii 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


INDUSTRY 

♦Addams, Jane. Recent immigration: A field neglected by the 
scholar. Educational Review. 29:245-63. Mr. ’05. 

Treats mainly of the industrial aspects of the Americanization problem. 
Americanization of railway shop men. Railway Age. 67:54-5. 
Jl. 11. Sec. 1, ’19. 

Y. M. C. A. work in Chicago Burnside Shops. 

Americanizing employees; features of an effective campaign in 
Connecticut. Iron Age. 103:966. Ap. 10, ’19. 

Bliven, Bruce. “America first”: selling the idea to your alien 
workers. Printers’ Ink. 101:69-70, 73-6. N. 29, ’17. 

—. Turning immigrants into citizens by advertising. Printers’ 
Ink. 101:12, 17-20. N. 22, ’17. 

♦Boswell, Helen Varick. Promoting Americanism. Annals of 
the American Academy. 64:204-9. Mr. ’16. 

Thoughtful article by the chairman of the education committee, Gen¬ 
eral Federation of Women’s Clubs, on industry as the chief factor in 
Americanization; deals especially with the Americanization of the alien 
woman and suggests what clubwomen can do to aid. 

Clark, Marian K. English for safety campaign by the state in¬ 
dustrial commission. Safety. 6:34-8. F. ’18. 

*—. The English for Safety campaign. Bureau of Industries 
and Immigration, New York State Industrial Commission, 
New York, 230 Fifth Ave, 1917. 

♦Commons, John R. Americanization by labor unions. World 
Today. O. ’03. 

Reprinted in Chautauquan 39:225-6, My. ’04. 

Conference for industrial peace. Metal Worker, Plumber and 
Steam Fitter. 91:283~4. F. 28 ’19. 

The Inter-Racial Council. 

Connecticut Americanization plan. American Industries. 20:22. 
Ag. ’19. 

Program of fourteen points. 

Course on industrial Americanization at Harvard. Americaniza¬ 
tion Bulletin. 1:1, 8. D. 1, ’18. 

Outline of course. 

Dooley, C. R. Education and Americanization. Industrial Man¬ 
agement. 54:49-51. O. ’17. 

♦Fahey, J. H. American industry and immigration labor. Im¬ 
migrants in America Review. 2: 47-9. Ap. ’16. 

Article by the retiring president of the Chamber of Commerce of the 
United States of America. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 


lxiii 


Kellor, Frances A. Americanization by industry. Immigrants 
in America Review. 2: April, 1916. 

Argument for the conservation of the alien in industry. 

Hammond, Henry D. Americanization a problem in human •en¬ 
gineering. Engineering News. 80:1116-19. Je. 13, ’18. 
Humphrey, Grace. Business man and Americanization. Every¬ 
body’s. 41 71. Jl. ’19. 

Industry’s part in Americanization work; national conference on 
Americanization in industries. American Industries. 19:17- 
18. Jl. ’19. 

Labor and immigration after the war. Review of Reviews. 55: 
32. Mr. ’17. 

*Paull, Charles H. Aims and standards in industrial Amer¬ 
icanization. Industrial Management. 57:148-51. F. ’19. 

—. Americanization; a discussion of present conditions with 

recommendations for the teaching of non-Americans. Report. 
37p. Solway Process Company. Syracuse, N.Y. 1918. 

—. Development of Americanization project. Industrial Man¬ 
agement. 57:213-17. Mr. ’19. 

Rea, Samuel. Making Americans on the railroad. Social Service 
Review. 8:5-7. S. ’18. 

Same. Pennsylvania Railroad System Information, v. 6. no 5. 8p. 
Ap. 27, ’18. 

—. Making Americans out of the foreign born. American 
Lumberman. 2256-49. Ag. 10, ’18. 

Same. American Machinist. 49:673-6. 0 . 10, ’i8. Same abridged. 

Railway Review. 62:693-5. My. ix, ’18. 

Pennsylvania Railroad system. 

Real results of Americanization schools of Youngstown Sheet & 
Tube Co. Iron Age. 102: 138-9. Jl. 18, T8. 

Same. Iron Trade Review. 63:264-5. Ag. 1, ’18. 

Sanville, F. L. Unemployment, education and the immigrant’s 
chances in Pennsylvania today, il. Survey. 34:118-20. My. 

I, '15. 

So-called American wage-earner and the strike at Lawrence, 
Mass. Review of Reviews. 45:746-7. Je. T2. 

Szepesi, Eugene. Hyphen a cause of industrial inefficiency. 

Textile World. 53:2962+. Ja. 12, ’18. 

Talbot, Winthrop. Americanization in industry; teaching the 
English language to aliens. Industrial Management. 56:510- 

II. D. ’18. 


Ixiv 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


—. Managing alien workers in wartime. Iron Age. 100:252-3. 
Ag. 2, ’i 7. 

Human element must be given scientific consideration in solving prob¬ 
lems which the world war has brought upon industry. The part of the 
employer in the process of Americanization. 

—. One language industrial plant: practical aim of Americani¬ 
zation. Industrial Management. 58:513-20. O. ’19. 
Teaching Americanism in the factory. Literary Digest. 60:28-9. 
F. I, ’19. 

Todd, A. J. Job for every alien; plans for fitting immigration 
to the labor market. Survey. 37:452-3. Ja. 20, *17. 

Trumbull, Frank. Americanizing industrial workers vitally im¬ 
portant task of today. 3p. Frank Trumbull, 61 Broadway, 
New York. 1917. 

Reprinted from Manufacturers’ Record. 71:68-9. Ap. 5, ’17. 
Weinstock, H. Immigration and American labor. Annals of 
the American Academy. 69:66-71. Ja.’17. 

Wolfe, F. E. Admission to American trades unions. Johns 
Hopkins University Studies. 30:550-65. ’12. 

Woodward, Roland B. Americanization movement in Rochester. 
American City (city edition). 18:157-9. F. ’18. 

Factory procedure in Rochester in cooperation with the Chamber of 
Commerce. 


PART I 

PRINCIPLES OF AMERICANISM 






































AMERICANISM 

Winthrop Talbot 

Americanism is an attitude of mind upholding certain prin¬ 
ciples. Among these principles are: that mankind is endowed 
with unalienable rights which no laws may abrogate or nullify; 
that among unalienable rights of humankind are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness; that government shall be a government 
of laws, not men; that laws shall be enacted through representa¬ 
tives elected by general suffrage; that the welfare of all shall be 
paramount to the privileges of the individual; that the will of the 
majority shall prevail only when not imperilling basic rights of 
humanity; and finally that enjoyment of American privileges im¬ 
plies corresponding obligations in personal contribution and ser¬ 
vice by each for all, in upholding law, and in orderly administra¬ 
tion or repeal of measures enacted by representatives. 

Americanism is a matter of the spirit, to be regarded and ap¬ 
proached in a spirit of truth. It breaks down race and class 
prejudice. It requires ability to read the printed page, for it de¬ 
pends upon sharing thought; thus resting upon general intelli¬ 
gence and power to cooperate, Americanism makes democracy 
possible. Americanism implies freedom, but never can become 
complete until freedom is attained everywhere and every wise, for 
each is limited by the ability of all individuals to experience, and 
to act together with understanding. 

We are Americanized when our attitude of mind is in accord 
with these fundamental American principles of government and 
conduct, when our judgment accepts them as sound and our in¬ 
dustrial, civic, and home practice and mode of living conform 
with American standards. Our religious tenets and habits may 
not be antagonistic to essential Americanism. We must show 
consideration for rights of others and express it through tolera¬ 
tion and courtesy. “We” and “our” embrace native-born and 
alien, for our foreign-born, although speaking no English and 
dwelling again in their home lands, may yet be more truly Amer¬ 
icanized than such straight descendants of Pilgrim and Puritan 
stock as may have habits of thought and conduct which are un¬ 
democratic, intolerant, and unfraternal. Chance of birth and the 


2 


AMERICANISM 


fortune of inheritance may as easily keep from sharing in Amer¬ 
icanism the Bostonian as the native of Bangkok. 

Americanism as an Ideal 

As Americans if we could but grasp the elementary fact that 
Americanism is always partial and incomplete, an ideal to be 
sought but never fully to be attained because always in its per¬ 
fection just beyond our reach, how much better Americans might 
we ourselves become, and how far more potent missioners of the 
gospel of Americanism would we be. If our newcomers, too, 
could but realize that Americanism ever is to be, and that they 
are helping in its making, their enthusiasms would be strength¬ 
ened, not shattered, and their power to contribute extended. 

No other form of government rests on the fact that there ex¬ 
ist human rights which are unalienable. In all republics save 
ours the will of the majority knows no limit, but Americanism 
denies that even the will of the majority may legislate concerning 
fundamental rights of humanity. 

In our relation with the world the literature of Americaniza¬ 
tion has now become important. It is not only Americanism as a 
philosophy of life that claims our study, but also the practical 
means of applying Americanism to the solution of complex 
world problems, and these we hope to visualize to our readers in 
this Handbook. 

It is with the hope of further clarifying our conception of 
what Americanism is and how to apply effectively our national 
mechanism of Americanization that this Handbook has been com¬ 
piled. More than all our need is to comprehend our own pos¬ 
sibilities as a nation and to realize not only that our duties con¬ 
cern ourselves and those dependent upon us, but that in the 
great family of nations of which we ai*e one, oceans no longer 
are barriers to keep up from sharing the thought and need of all. 

Americanisation a World-process 

Some of us seem unaware that this process of Americaniza¬ 
tion is proceeding rapidly throughout the whole world. Even 
since 1900, during a short fifteen years, four million emigrants 
or one quarter of the immigrants arriving on our shores have re¬ 
turned to their own lands, bearing with them the essential ideas 
of Americanism. It is our emigrant aliens who have been Amer¬ 
icanizing the world. It is they who have carried far and wide 


AMERICANISM 


3 


the dominant ideas of democracy. In America they have found 
free schooling. In America they have discovered that freedom 
of the mind which comes from sharing thought. In America 
they have been exploited, but in America they have also found 
the best remedy for exploitation—free, general, and public 
schooling. They come to us as aliens; they go to their home 
lands as Americans. They return to America, it may be, but al¬ 
ways they are missionaries of democracy among their own peo¬ 
ples. 

In view of this world movement and wide extension of 
American principles the time now has come to collate the litera¬ 
ture of Americanization. In this volume an attempt has been 
made to present the principles of Americanism formulated by the 
Elder Statesmen as well as those later interpretations by con¬ 
temporaneous leaders who have been compelled to grapple with 
the larger American life of to-day and its complex industrial, 
social, and political problems. In order to grasp the meaning of 
Americanization, some presentation of Americanism in its larger 
sense seemed to be prerequisite. 

For many years America has had to deal with the technical 
side of assimilation of so many alien races that there has grad¬ 
ually grown up a real technic of Americanization. In this Hand¬ 
book this technic has been outlined and in a large degree the 
sources of information upon this subject are detailed. 

It is hoped that this volume may bear a message of larger 
Humanism and be a means of strengthening our faith in human 
capacities and progress. May it be in some measure a source of 
inspiration to all Americans and aliens alike who are fighting the 
battle of Human Right as against Special Privilege, of Democ¬ 
racy as against Autocracy, not only in this Garden of the West, 
but in foreign lands as well. 


AMERICA 

From the National Ode, July 4, 1876. 
Bayard Taylor 

POET, JOURNALIST, TRAVELLER, WORKER FOR AMERICA. 

Foreseen in the vision of sages 
Foretold when martyrs bled, 

She was born of the longing of ages, 

By the truth of the noble dead 
And the faith of the living fed! 

No blood in her lightest veins 
Frets at remembered chains 
Nor shame of bondage has bowed her head. 

In her form and features still 
The unblenching Puritan will, 

Cavalier honor, Huguenot grace, 

The Quaker truth and sweetness, 

And the strength of the danger-girdled race 
Of Holland, blend in a proud completeness. 
From the homes of all where her being began 
She took what she gave to Man; 

Justice, that knew no station, 

Belief, as soul decreed, 

Free air for aspiration, 

Free force for independent deed! 

She takes but to give again, 

As the sea returns the rivers in rain; 

And gathers the chosen of her seed 
From the hunted of every crown and creed. 

Her Germany dwells by a gentler Rhine; 

Her Ireland sees the old sunburst shine; 

Her France pursues some dream divine; 

Her Norway keeps his mountain pine; 

Her Italy waits by the western brine; 

And, broad-based under all, 

Is planted England’s oaken-hearted mood, 

As rich in fortitude 

As e’er went worldward from the island wall! 

Fused in her candid light, 

To one strong face all races here unite; 
Tongues melt in hers, hereditary foemen 
Forget their sword and slogan, kith and clan. 

’Twas glory once to be a Roman: 

She makes it glory, now to be a man! 


AMERICANISM 

THE COMPACT OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS 

Made on board the “Mayflower” before landing at Plym¬ 
outh in 1620. This agreement became the basis for civil 
GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA. 

In ye name of God, Amen. We whose names are under- 

% 

writen, the loyal subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King 
James, by ye grace of God, of great Britaine, France, and Ire¬ 
land king, defender of ye faith, etc., having undertaken for the 
glory of God, and advancement of ye Christian faith and honour 
of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant ye first colonie in 
ye Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly 
and mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, cove¬ 
nant, and combine ourselves togeather into a civill body politick; 
for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of ye 
ends aforesaid; and by vertue hereof to enacte, constitute, and 
frame such just and equall laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, 
and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete 
and convenient for ye generall good of ye Colonie, unto which 
we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes whereof 
we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cap-Codd ye II of 
November in ye year of the raigne of our soveraigne Lord, King 
James, of England, France, and Ireland, ye eighteenth, and of 
Scotland ye fiftie-fourth. 

Anno Dom. 1620. 

In Witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be 
made Patents; Witness Ourself at Westminster, ye tenth Day 
of April, in ye fourth Year of our Reign of England, France, 
and Ireland, and of Scotland the nine and thirtieth. 


6 


AMERICANISM 


THE PILGRIM FATHERS (1620) 

John Boyle O’Reilly 

IRISH PATRIOT, IMMIGRANT, AMERICAN, EDITOR, POET, MAN 

Here, where the shore was rugged as the waves, 

Where frozen nature dumb and leafless lay, 

And no rich meadows bade the Pilgrims stay, 

Was spread the symbol of the life that saves: 

To conquer first the outer things; to make 
Their own advantage, unallied, unbound; 

Their blood the mortar, building from the ground; 

Their cares the statutes, making all anew; 

To learn to trust the many, not the few; 

To bend the mind to discipline; to break 
The bonds of old convention, and forget 
The claims and barriers of class; to face 
A desert land, a strange and hostile race, 

And conquer both to friendship by the debt 
That Nature pays to justice, love, and toil. 

Here, on this rock, and on this sterile soil, 

Began the kingdom not of kings, but men: 

Began the making of the world again. 

Here centuries sank, and from the hither brink 
A new world reached and raised an old-world link, 

When English hands, by wider vision taught, 

Threw down the feudal bars the Normans brought, 

And here revived, in spite of sword and stake, 

Their ancient freedom of the Wapentake! 

Here struck the seed—the Pilgrims’ roofless town, 

Where equal rights and equal bonds were set, 

Where all the people equal-franchised met; 

Where doom was writ of privilege and crown; 

Where human breath blew all the idols down; 

Where crests were nought, where vulture bags were furled, 
And common men began to own the world! 

♦ ♦♦♦♦♦ 

Give praise to others, early-come or late, 

For love and labor on our ship of state; 

But this must stand above all fame and zeal: 

The Pilgrim Fathers laid the ribs and keel. 


AMERICANISM 


7 


On their strong lines we base our social health— 

The man—the home—the town—the commonwealth ! 
****** 

In every land wherever might holds sway 
The Pilgrims’ leaven is at work to-day. 

The Mayflower’s cabin was the chosen womb 
Of light predestined for the nation’s gloom. 

God grant that those who tend the sacred flame 
May worthy prove of their Forefathers’ name. 

More light has come—more dangers, too, perplex: 

New prides, new greeds, our high conditions vex. 

The Fathers fled from feudal lords, and made 
A freehold state; may we not retrograde 
To lucre-lords and hierarchs of trade. 

May we, as they did, teach in court and school, 

There must be classes, but no class shall rule: 

****** 

As Nature works with changeless grain on grain, 

The truth the Fathers taught we need again. 

Depart from this, though we may crowd our shelves, 
With codes and precepts for each lapse and flaw, 

And patch our moral leaks with statute law, 

We cannot be protected from ourselves! 

Still must we keep in every stroke and vote 
The law of conscience that the Pilgrims wrote; 

Our seal their secret: liberty can be; 

The state is freedom if the town is free. 

The death of nations in their work began; 

They sowed the seed of federated Man. 

Dead nations were but robber-holds; and we 
The first battalion of Humanity! 

All living nations, while our eagles shine, 

One after one, shall swing into our line; 

Our freedom heritage shall be the guide 
And bloodless order of their regicide; 

The sea shall join, not limit; mountains stand 
Dividing farm from farm, not land from land. 

O people’s Voice! when farthest thrones shall hear; 
****** 

The Pilgrims’ Vision is accomplished here! 

J. J. Roche, Life of John Boyle O’Reilly (N. Y., 1891), 397-404- 


8 


AMERICANISM 


NATURAL RIGHTS OF MANKIND 

Samuel Adams (i772) 

ADVOCATE OF NATURAL RIGHTS OF HUMAN KIND, ORGANIZER OF 
AMERICAN REVOLUTION, GOVERNOR. 

It is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one 
or any number of men at the entering into society, to renounce 
their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those 
rights when the great end of civil government from the very 
nature of its institution is for the support, protection and de¬ 
fence of those very rights; the principle of which as is before 
observed, are life, liberty and property. If men through fear, 
fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any es¬ 
sential natural right, society would absolutely vacate such re¬ 
nunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, 
it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and volun¬ 
tarily become a slave. 

Samuel Adams, Writings. 355 (N. Y., 1901). 


THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
PREAMBLE (1776) 

Thomas Jefferson 

President of the united states of America, 1800-1808 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary 
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con¬ 
nected them with another, and to assume among the powers of 
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of 
Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the 
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes 
which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be 
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are en¬ 
dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that 
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— 
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among 
Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 


AMERICANISM 


9 


erned,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes de¬ 
structive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or 
to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its founda¬ 
tions on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, 
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Hap¬ 
piness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long 
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; 
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accus¬ 
tomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pur¬ 
suing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them 
under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to 
throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their 
future security. 

Charles Sumner, Works (Boston, 1874), V. 251-252. 


PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 

Thomas Jefferson. 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties 
which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is 
proper you should understand what I deem the essential princi¬ 
ples of our government, and consequently those which ought to 
shape its administration. I will compress them within the.nar¬ 
rowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle but 
not all its limitations: 

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or per¬ 
suasion, religious or political: 

Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, en¬ 
tangling alliances with none: 

The support of the State governments in all their rights, as 
the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, 
and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies: 

The preservation of the general government in its whole con¬ 
stitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, and 
safety abroad: 


10 


AMERICANISM 


A jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild 
and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of 
revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided: 

Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the 
vital principles of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, 
the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism: 

A well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for 
the first moments of war until regulars may relieve them: 

The supremacy of the civil over the military authority: 

Economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly bur¬ 
dened : 

The honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of 
the public faith: 

Encouragement of agriculture and of commerce as its hand¬ 
maid: 

The diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses 
at the bar of public reason: 

Freedom of religion: 

Freedom of the press: 

And freedom of person under the protection of the Habeas 
Corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. 

These principles form the bright constellation which has gone 
before us, and guided our steps through the age of revolution 
and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and blood of our 
heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be 
the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the 
touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust, and 
should we wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let 
us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone 
leads to peace, liberty, and safety. 


McLaughlin, Readings in American History, iio-ii, New York, 1914. 


AMERICANISM 


ii 


MEANING OF THE DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE (1858-1859) 

Abraham Lincoln 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1860-1865 

I think the authors of that notable instrument (Declaration 
of Independence) intended to include all men; but they did not 
intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not 
mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral develop¬ 
ment, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable distinctness 
in what respects they did consider all men created equal—equal 
with “certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.” This they said, and this they 

meant.They meant to set up a standard maxim for free 

society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; con¬ 
stantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never 
perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby con¬ 
stantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting 
the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors every¬ 
where. The assertion that “all men are created equal” was of no 
practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and 
it was placed in the Declaration, not for that but for future use. 
Its authors meant it to be, as thank God, it is now proving itself, 
a stumbling-block to all those who in after times might seek to 
turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They 
know the proneness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they 
meant when such should reappear in this fair land and com¬ 
mence their vocation, they should find left for them at least one 
hard nut to crack. 

It is now no child’s play to save the principles of Jefferson 
from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great 
confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler 
propositions of Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, 
utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. 
The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of 
free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small 
show of success. One dashingly calls them “glittering gener¬ 
alities.” Another bluntly calls them “self-evident lies.” And 
others insidiously argue that they apply only to “superior races.” 


12 


AMERICANISM 


These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and 
effect—the supplanting the principles of free government, and 
restoring those of classification, caste and legitimacy. They 
would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against 
the people. They are the van-guard—the miners and sappers of 
returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subju¬ 
gate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who w r ould 
be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny 
freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under a 
just God, cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson—to the 
man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national 
independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and 
capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an 
abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to em¬ 
balm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a 
rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappear¬ 
ing tyranny and oppression. 

Nicolay & Hay, Abraham Lincoln : A History. 2:87-183: (N. Y., 1890). 


MASSACHUSETTS DECLARATION OF RIGHTS 

(1780) 

SIMILAR DECLARATIONS OF RIGHTS WERE MADE BY OTHER STATES, 
NOTABLY VIRGINIA, CONNECTICUT AND THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 
FOR THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY AND ARE THE BASES OF 
AMERICAN GOVERNMENT 

The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration 
of government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to 
protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with 
the power of enjoying in safety and tranquillity their natural 
rights, and the blessings of life: and whenever these great ob¬ 
jects are not obtained the people have a right to alter the govern¬ 
ment, and to take measures necessary for their safety, prosperity, 
and happiness. 

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of in¬ 
dividuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people 
covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole peo¬ 
ple, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common 
good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a con- 


AMERICANISM 


13 


stitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of 
making laws, as well as an impartial interpretation and a faith¬ 
ful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find 
his security in them. 

We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, 
with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great Legislator of the 
universe, in affording us, in the course of His providence, an 
opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence, 
or surprise, of entering into an original, explicit, and solemn 
compact with each other; and of forming a new constitution of 
civil government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly im¬ 
ploring his direction in so interesting a design, do agree upon, 
ordain and establish, the following Declaration of Rights, and 
Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts. 

Article I. All men are born free and equal, and have certain 
natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be 
reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and 
liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; 
in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. 

II. It is the right as well as the duty of all men in society, 
publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being, 
the great Creator and Preserver of the Universe. And no sub¬ 
ject shall be hurt, molested or restrained, in his person, liberty 
or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most 
agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience; or for his re¬ 
ligious profession of sentiments; provided he doth not disturb 
the public peace, or obstruct others in their religious worship. 

III. As the happiness of a people, and the good order and 
preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, 
religion, and morality; and as these cannot be generally diffused 
through a community but by the institution of the public worship 
of God, and of public instructions in piety, religion, and morality: 
Therefore, to promote their happiness, and to secure the good 
order and preservation of their government, the people of this 
commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power 
to authorize and require, and the legislature shall, from time to 
time, authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, precincts, 
and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable 
provisions, at their own expense, for the institution of the public 
worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public 


14 


AMERICANISM 


Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases 
where such provision shall not be made voluntarily. 

And the people of this commonwealth have also a right to, 
and do, invest their legislature with authority to enjoin upon all 
the subjects an attendance upon the instructions of the public 
teachers aforesaid, at stated times and seasons, if there be any on 
whose instructions they can conscientiously and conveniently at¬ 
tend. 

Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, parishes, 
precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, shall, at 
all times, have the exclusive right of electing their public teach¬ 
ers, and of contracting with them for their support and main- 
tenance. 

And all moneys paid by the subject to the support of public 
worship, and of the public teachers aforesaid, shall, if he re¬ 
quire it, be uniformly applied to the support of the public teacher 
or teachers of his own religious sect or denomination, provided 
there be any on whose instructions he attends; otherwise it 
may be paid toward the support of the teacher or teachers of the 
parish or precinct in which the said moneys are raised. 

And every denomination of Christians, demeaning themselves 
peaceably, and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall be 
equally under the protection of the law: and no subordination of 
any one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established 
by law. 

IV. The people of this commonwealth have the sole and ex¬ 
clusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign, and 
independent state; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise 
and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not, or 
may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled. 

V. All power residing originally in the people, and being 
derived from them, the several magistrates and officers of gov¬ 
ernment, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive or 
judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times ac¬ 
countable to them. 

VI. No man, nor corporation, or association of men, have 
any other title to obtain advantages, or particular and exclusive 
privileges, distinct from those of the community, than what 
arises from the consideration of services rendered to the public; 


AMERICANISM 


15 


and this title being in nature neither hereditary, nor transmis¬ 
sible to children, or descendants, or relations by blood, the idea 
of a man born a magistrate, law-giver, or judge, is absurd and 
unnatural. 

VII. Government is instituted for the common good; for 
the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; 
and not for the profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, 
family, or class of men: Therefore the people alone have an in¬ 
contestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute 
government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, 
when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it. 

VIII. In order to prevent those who are vested with au¬ 
thority from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at 
such periods and in such manner as they shall establish by their 
frame of government, to cause their public officers to return to 
private life; and to fill up vacant places by certain regular elec¬ 
tions and appointments. 

IX. All elections ought to be free; and all the inhabitants of 
this commonwealth, having such qualifications as they shall es¬ 
tablish by their frame of government, have an equal right to 
elect officers, and to be elected, for public employments. 

X. Each individual of the society has a right to be pro¬ 
tected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, 
according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to con¬ 
tribute his share to the expense of this protection; to give his 
personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary: but no part 
of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from 
him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that 
of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of 
this commonwealth, are not controllable by any other laws than 
those to which their constitutional representative body have given 
their consent. And whenever the public exigencies require that 
the property of any individual should be appropriated to public 
uses, he shall receive a reasonable compensation therefor. 

XI. Every subject of the commonwealth ought to find a cer¬ 
tain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or 
wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or char¬ 
acter. He ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without 


i6 


AMERICANISM 


being obliged to purchase it; completely, and without any denial; 
promptly, and without any delay; conformably to the laws. 

XII. No subject shall be held to answer for any crimes or 
offence, until the same is fully and plainly, substantially and for¬ 
mally, described to him; or be compelled to accuse, or furnish 
evidence against himself. And every subject shall have a right 
to produce all proofs that may be favorable to him; to meet the 
witnesses against him face to face, and to be fully heard in his 
defence by himself, or his counsel at his election. And no sub¬ 
ject shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his 
property, immunities, or privileges, put out of the protection of 
the law, exiled, or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by 
the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 

And the legislature shall not make any law that shall subject 
any person to a capital or infamous punishment, excepting for 
the government of the army and navy, without trial by jury. 

XIII. In criminal prosecutions, the verification of facts, in 
the vicinity where they happen, is one of the greatest securities 
of the life, liberty and property of the citizen. 

XIV. Every subject has a right to be secure from all un¬ 
reasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, his houses, his 
papers, and all his possessions. All warrants, therefore, are con¬ 
trary to this right, if the cause or foundation of them be not pre¬ 
viously supported by oath or affirmation, and if the order in the 
warrant to a civil officer, to make search in suspected places, or 
to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize their prop¬ 
erty, be not accompanied with a special designation of the per¬ 
sons or objects of search, arrest, or seizure; and no warrant 
ought to be issued but in cases, with the formalities prescribed 
by the laws. 

XV. In all controversies concerning property, and in all suits 
between two or more persons, except in cases in which it has 
heretofore been otherways used and practised, the parties have a 
right to a trial by jury; and this method of procedure shall be 
held sacred, unless in causes arising on the high seas, and such 
as relate to mariners’ wages, the legislature shall hereafter find 
it necessary to alter it. 

XVI. The liberty of the press is essential to the security of 
freedom in a state; it ought not, therefore, to be restricted in 
this commonwealth. 


AMERICANISM 


17 


XVII. The people have a right to keep and bear arms for 
the common defence. And as, in time of peace, armies are 
dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without 
the consent of the legislature; and the military power shall al¬ 
ways be held in exact subordination to the civil authority, and be 
governed by it. 

XVIII. A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles 
of the constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, 
justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality, are ab¬ 
solutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to 
maintain a free government. The people ought, consequently, to 
have a particular attention to all those principles, in the choice 
of their officers and representatives: and they have a right to re¬ 
quire of their lawgivers and magistrates an exact and constant 
observance of them, in the formation and execution of the laws 
necessary for the good administration of the commonwealth. 

XIX. The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable 
manner, to assemble to consult upon the common good; give in¬ 
structions to their representatives, and to request of the legisla¬ 
tive body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, 
redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they 
suffer. 

XX. The power of suspending the laws, or the execution of 
the laws, ought never to be exercised but by the legislature, or by 
authority derived from it, to be exercised in such particular cases 
only as the legislature shall expressly provide for. 

XXI. The freedom of deliberation, speech, and debate, in 
either house of the legislature, is so essential to the rights of the 
people, that it cannot be the foundation of any accusation or 
prosecution, action or complaint, in any other court or place 
whatsoever. 

XXII. The legislature ought frequently to assemble for the 
redress of grievances, for correcting, strengthening, and con¬ 
firming the laws, and for making new laws, as the common good 
may require. 

XXIII. No subsidy charge, tax, impost, or duties ought to be 
established, fixed, laid, or levied, under any pretext whatsoever, 
without the consent of the people or their representatives in the 
legislature. 


i8 


AMERICANISM 


XXIV. Laws made to punish for actions done before the ex¬ 
istence of such laws, are unjust, oppressive, and inconsistent 
with the fundamental principles of a free government. 

XXV. No subject ought, in any case, or in any time, to be 
declared guilty of treason or felony by the legislature. 

XXVI. No magistrate or court of law shall demand exces¬ 
sive bail or sureties, impose excessive fines, or inflict cruel or 
unusual punishments. 

XXVII. In time of peace, no soldier ought to be quartered 
in any house without the consent of the owner; and in time of 
war, such quarters ought to be made but by the civil magistrate, 
in a manner ordained by the legislature. 

XXVIII. No person can in any case be subject to law-mar¬ 
tial, or to any penalties or pains, by virtue of that law, except 
those employed in the army or navy, and except the militia in 
actual service, but by authority of the legislature. 

XXIX. It is essential to the preservation of the rights of 
every individual, his life, liberty, property, and character, that 
there be an impartial interpretation of the laws, and administra¬ 
tion of the laws, and administration of justice. It is the right 
of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impartial, and in¬ 
dependent as the lot of humanity will admit. It is, therefore, 
not only the best policy, but for the security of the rights of the 
people, and every citizen, that the judges of the supreme judicial 
court should hold their offices as long as they behave themselves 
well; and that they should have honorable salaries ascertained 
and established by standing laws. 

XXX. In the government of this commonwealth, the legisla¬ 
tive department shall never exercise the executive and judicial 
powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the 
legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial 
shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or 
either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and 
not of men. 


Thorpe. Federal and State Constitutions. Vol: iii. 


AMERICANISM 


19 


EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW AS THE 
BASIS OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1849) 

Charles Sumner 

SCHOLAR, JURIST, ORATOR, UNITED STATES SENATOR, DEFENDER OF 

FREEDOM 

The way is now prepared to consider the nature of Equality, 
as secured by the Constitution of Massachusetts. The Declara¬ 
tion of Independence, which followed the French Encyclopedia 
and the political writings of Rousseau, announces among self- 
evident truths, “that all men are created equal; that they are en¬ 
dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The 
Constitution of Massachusetts repeats the same truth in a differ¬ 
ent form, saying, in its first article: “All men are horn free and 
equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, 
among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defend¬ 
ing their lives and liberties.” Another article explains what is 
meant by Equality, saying: “No man, nor corporation, or asso¬ 
ciation of men, have any other title to obtain advantages, or par¬ 
ticular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those of the com¬ 
munity, than what arises from the consideration of services 
rendered to the public; and this title being in nature neither 
hereditary, nor transmissible to children, or descendants, or rela¬ 
tions by blood, the idea of a man being born a magistrate, law¬ 
giver, or judge, is absurd and unnatural.” This language, in its 
natural signification, condemns every form of inequality in civil 
and political institutions. 

These declarations, though in point of time before the ampler 
declarations of France, may be construed in the light of the 
latter. Evidently, they seek to declare the same principle. They 
are declarations of Rights', and the language employed, though 
general in character, is obviously limited to those matters within 
the design of a declaration of Rights. And permit me to say, 
it is a childish sophism to adduce any physical or mental in- 
equality in argument against Equality of Rights. 

Obviously, men are not born equal in physical strength or in 
mental capacity, in beauty of form, or health of body. Diversity 
or inequality in these respects is the law of creation. From this 


20 


AMERICANISM 


difference springs divine harmony. But this inequality is in no 
particular inconsistent with complete civil and political equality. 

The equality declared by our fathers in 1776, and made the 
fundamental law of Massachusetts in 1780, was Equality before 
the Law. Its object was to efface all political or civil distinctions, 
and to abolish all institutions founded upon birth. “All men are 
created equal,” says the Declaration of Independence. These 
are not vain words. Within the sphere of their influence, no 
person can be created, no person can be born, with civil or 
political privileges not enjoyed equally by all his fellow-citizens; 
nor can any institution be established, recognizing distinction of 
birth. Here is the Great Charter of every human being drawing 
vital breath upon this soil, whatever may be his condition, and 
whoever may be his parents. He may be poor, humble, or black— 
he may be of Caucasian, Jewish, Indian, or Ethiopian race—he 
may be of French, German, English, or Irish extraction; but be¬ 
fore the Constitution of Massachusetts all these distinctions dis¬ 
appear. He is not poor, weak, humble, or black; nor is he Cau¬ 
casian, Jew, Indian, or Ethiopian; nor is he French, German, 
English, or Irish; he is a MAN, the equal of all his fellow-men. 
He is one of the children of the state, which, like an impartial 
parent, regards all its offspring with an equal care. To some it 
may justly allot higher duties, according to higher capacities; but 
it welcomes all to its equal hospitable board. 

Works, II, 340-342. (Boston, 1875.) 


LIMITS TO POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY (1860) 

Charles Sumner 

All hail to Popular Sovereignty in its true glory! This is the 
grand principle, first announced in the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence, which is destined to regenerate the world. It is em¬ 
bodied in those famous words, adopted by the Republican Con¬ 
vention at Chicago, that among the unalienable rights of all men 
are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and that “to se¬ 
cure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriv¬ 
ing their just powers from the consent of the governed.” These 
are sacred words, full of life-giving energy. Not simply national 


AMERICANISM 


21 


independence was here proclaimed, but also the primal rights of 
all mankind. Then and there appeared the Angel of Human 
Liberation, speaking and acting at once with heaven-born 
strength—breaking bolts, unloosing bonds, and opening prison- 
doors—always ranging on its mighty errand, wherever there are 
any, no matter of what country or race, who struggle for rights 
denied—now cheering Garibaldi at Naples as it had cheered 
Washington in the snows of Valley Forge—and especially visit¬ 
ing all who are down-trodden whispering that there is none so 
poor as to be without rights which every man is bound to re¬ 
spect. 

But the great Declaration, not content with announcing cer¬ 
tain rights as unalienable, and therefore beyond the control of 
any government, still further restrains the sovereignty which it 
asserts, by simply declaring that the United States have “full 
power to do all acts and things which independent states may 
OF RIGHT do.” Here is a well-defined limitation upon Popu¬ 
lar Sovereignty. The dogma of Tory lawyer and pamphleteers 
—put forward to sustain the claim of Parliamentary omnipo¬ 
tence, and vehemently espoused by Dr. Johnson in his “Taxation 
no Tyranny”—was, openly, that sovereignty is in its nature il¬ 
limitable, precisely as is now loosely professed by Mr. Douglas 
for his handful of squatters. But this dogma is distinctly dis¬ 
carded in the Declaration, and it is frankly proclaimed that all 
sovereignty is subordinate to the rule of Right. Mark, now, the 
difference. All existing governments at that time, even the local 
governments of the Colonies, stood on Power, without limitation. 
Here was a new government, which, taking its place among the 
nations, announced that it stood only on Right and claimed no 
sovereignty inconsistent with Right. Such, again, is the Popular 
Sovereignty of the Declaration of Independence. 

Works (Boston, 1874), V. 251-252. 


2 2 


AMERICANISM 


HIS LAST PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY 
(1859) 


John Brown 

AMERICAN, FARMER, SEEKER FOR JUSTICE, LIBERATOR 


This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the Law 
of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the 
Bible, or at least, the New Testament. That teaches me that all 
things “whatsoever I would that men should do unto me I should 
do even so to them.” It teaches me further, to “remember them 
that are in bonds as bound with them.” I endeavored to act up 
to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that 
God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered 
as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in 
behalf of HIS despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, 
if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the 
furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further 
with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in 
this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, 
and unjust enactments—I submit: so let it be done. 


James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown, p. 341. Boston. 
i860. 


AMERICANISM 


23 


ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION 
OF THE CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG, 
(NOVEMBER 19, 1863) 

Abraham Lincoln 

PRESIDENT. i860 TO 1865. LIBERATOR 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on 
this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated 
to the proposition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war; testing whether 
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting 
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might 
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we can not conse¬ 
crate—we can not hallow this ground. The brave men living 
and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our 
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor 
long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what 
they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here 
to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus 
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated 
to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored 
dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly re¬ 
solve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this na¬ 
tion under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that 
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall 
not perish from the earth. 


24 


AMERICANISM 


THE LAND WHERE HATE SHOULD DIE 

Denis A. McCarthy 

This is the land where hate should die— 

No feuds of faith, no spleen of race, 

No darkly brooding fear should try 
Beneath our flag to find a place. 

Lo! every people here has sent 

Its sons to answer freedom’s call; 

Their lifeblood is the strong cement 
That builds and binds the nation’s wall. 

This is the land where hate should die— 

Though dear to me my faith and shrine, 

I serve my country well when I 
Respect the creeds that are not mine. 

He little loves the land who’d cast 
Upon his neighbor’s word a doubt, 

Or cite the wrongs of ages past 
From present rights to bar him out. 

This is the land where hate should die— 

This is the land where strife should cease, 

Where foul, suspicious fear should fly 
Before the light of love and peace. 

Then let us purge from poisoned thought 
That service to the state we give, 

And so be worthy as we ought 

Of this great land in which we live! 

Heart Songs and Home Songs, p. 21, Boston. Little, Brown and 
Company, 1916. 


AMERICANISM 


25 


AN IMMIGRANT’S IMPRESSION OF AMERICA 

(1852) 

Carl Schurz 

GERMAN IMMIGRANT, GENERAL, DIPLOMAT, SENATOR, SECRETARY OF 

THE INTERIOR 

It is true, indeed, that the first sight of this country fills one 
with dumb amazement. Here you see the principle of individual 
freedom carried to its ultimate consequences: voluntarily made 
laws treated with contempt; in another place you notice the 
crasses religious fanaticism venting itself in brutal acts; on the 
one hand you see the great mass of the laboring people in com¬ 
plete freedom striving for emancipation, and by their side the 
speculative spirit of capital plunging into unheard of enterprises; 
here is a party that calls itself Democratic and is at the same 
time the mainstay of the institution of slavery; there another 
party thunders against slavery but bases all its arguments on the 
authority of the Bible and mentally is incredibly abject in its 
dependence—at one time it displays an impetuous impulse for 
emancipation, while at another it has an active lust for oppres¬ 
sion—all these in complete liberty, moving in a confused tumult, 
one with the other, one by the side of the other. The democrat 
just arrived from Europe, who has so far lived in a world of 
ideas and has had no opportunity to see these ideas put into 
actual, sound practice, will ask himself, hesitatingly: Is this, in¬ 
deed, a free people? Is this a real democracy? Is democracy a 
fact if it shelters under one cloak such conflicting principles? Is 
this my ideal? Thus he will doubtingly question himself, as he 
steps into this new, really new world. . . . 

Yes, this is humanity when it is free. Liberty breaks the 
chain of development. All strength, all weakness, all that is 
good, all that is bad, is here in full view and in free activity. 
The struggle of principles goes on unimpeded; outward before 
we can gain inner freedom. He who wishes liberty must not be 
surprised if men do not appear better than they are. Freedom 
is the only state in which it is possible for men to learn to know 
themselves, in which they show themselves as they really are. It 
is true, the ideal is not necessarily evolved, but it would be an 
unhappy thought to force the ideal in spite of humanity. . . . 


26 


AMERICANISM 


Every glance into the political life of America strengthens my 
convictions that the aim of a revolution can be nothing else than 
to make room for the will of the people—in other words, to 
break every authority which has its organization in the life of 
the state, and, as far as is possible, to overturn the barriers to 
individual liberty. The will of the people will have its fling and 
indulge in all kinds of foolishness—but that is its way; if you 
want to show it the way and then give it liberty of action, it will, 
nevertheless, commit its own follies. Each one of these follies 
clears away something, while the wisest thing that is done for 
the people accomplishes nothing until the popular judgment has 
progressed far enough to be able to do it for itself. Until then, 
conditions must stand a force de Vautorite, or they will totter. 
But if they exist by the force of authority, then democracy is in 
a bad way. Here in America you can every day see how slightly 
a people needs to be governed. In fact, the thing that is not 
named in Europe without a shudder, anarchy, exists here in full 
bloom. Here are governments, but no rules—governors, but they 
are clerks. ... It is only here that you realize how super¬ 
fluous governments are in many affairs in which, in Europe, they 
are considered entirely indispensable, and how the possibility of 
doing something inspires a desire to do it. 

Carl Schurz, Writings. 1:5-8. (N. Y., 1913.) 


WOMAN IN AMERICA (1853) 

Fredrika Bremer 

WRITER, TRAVELLER, REFORMER, PHILANTHROPIST, SWEDISH MIS- 
SIONER OF AMERICANISM 

The ideal of the man of America seems to me to be, purity 
of intention, decision in will, energy in action, simplicity and 
gentleness in manner and demeanor. Hence it is that there is 
something tender and chivalric in his behaviour to woman which 
is infinitely becoming to him. In every woman he respects his 
own mother. 

In the same way it appeared to me that the ideal of the 
woman of America, of the woman of the New World, is, inde¬ 
pendence in character, gentleness of demeanor and manner. 


AMERICANISM 


2 7 


The American’s ideal of happiness seems to me to be, mar¬ 
riage and a home, combined with public activity. To have a 
wife, his own house and home, his own little piece of land; to 
take care of these, and to beautify them, at the same time doing 
some good to the state or to the city—this seems to me to be the 
object of life with most men; a journey to Europe to see per¬ 
fected cities—and ruins belong to it—as a desirable episode. 

Of the American home I have seen enough and heard enough 
for me to be able to say that the women have, in general, all the 
rule there which they wish to have. Women is the centre and 
the lawgiver in the home of the New World, and the American 
man loves that it should be so. He wishes that his wife should 
have her own will at home, and he loves to obey it. In proof of 
this, I have heard the words of a young man quoted: “I hope 
that my wife will have her own will in the house, and if she has 
not I’ll make her have it! ” I must, however, say, that in the 
happy homes in which I lived I saw the wife equally careful to 
guide herself by the wishes of her husband as he was to indulge 
hers. Affection and sound reason make all things equal. 

The educational institutions for woman are, in general, most 
superior to those of Europe; and perhaps the most important 
work which America is doing for the tuture of humanity con¬ 
sists in her treatment and education of woman. 

Woman’s increasing value as a teacher, and the employment 
of her as such in public schools, even in those for boys, is a 
public fact in these States which greatly delights me. Sem¬ 
inaries have been established to educate her for this vocation. I 
hope to be able to visit that at West Newton, in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Boston, and which was originated by Horace Mann. It 
even seems as if the daughters of New England had a peculiar 
faculty and love for this employment. Young girls of fortune 
devote themselves to it. The daughters of poor farmers go to 
work in the manufactories a sufficient time to earn the necessary 
sum to put themselves to school, and thus to become teachers in 
due course. Whole crowds of school-teachers go hence to the 
Western and Southern States, where schools are daily being es¬ 
tablished and placed under their direction. The young daughters 
of New England are universally commended for their character 
and ability. Even Waldo Emerson, who does not easily praise, 
spoke in commendation of them. They learn in the schools the 


28 


AMERICANISM 


classics, mathematics, physics, algebra, with great ease, and pass 
their examinations like young men. Not long since a young lady 
in Nantucket, not far from Boston, distinguished herself in 
astronomy, discovered a new planet, and received, in conse¬ 
quence, a medal from the King of Prussia. 

, Homes of the New World. 1:190-91. New York. 1853. 

* Miss Maria Mitchell, professor of astronomy at Vassar College. 


ADDRESS TO THE CITIZENSHIP 
CONVENTION 

WASHINGTON, D. C., JULY 13, 1916 

Woodrow Wilson 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

It is not fair to the great multitudes of hopeful men and 
women who press into this country from other countries that we 
should leave them without that friendly and intimate instruction 
which will enable them very soon after they come to find out 
what America is like at heart and what America is intended for 
among the nations of the world. 

I believe that the chief school that these people must attend 
after they get here is the school which all of us attend, which is 
furnished by the life of the communities in which we live and 
the nation to which we belong. It has been a very touching 
thought to me sometimes to think of the hopes which have drawn 
these people to America. I have no doubt that many a simple 
soul has been thrilled by that great statue standing in the harbor 
of New York and seeming to lift the light of liberty for the guid¬ 
ance of the feet of men; and I can imagine that they have ex¬ 
pected here something ideal in the treatment that they will re¬ 
ceive, something ideal in the laws which they would have to live 
under, and it has caused me many a time to turn upon myself 
the eye of examination to see whether there burned in me the 
true light of the American spirit which they expected to find 
here. It is easy, my fellow-citizens, to communicate physical 
lessons, but it is very difficult to communicate spiritual lessons. 
America was intended to be a spirit among the nations of the 
world, and it is the purpose of conferences like this to find out 
the best way to introduce the newcomers to this spirit, and by 


AMERICANISM 


29 


that very interest in them to enhance and purify in ourselves 
the thing that ought to make America great and not only ought 
to make her great, but ought to make her exhibit a spirit unlike 
any other nation in the world. 

I have never been among those who felt comfortable in boast¬ 
ing of the superiority of America over other countries. The way 
to cure yourself of that is to travel in other countries and find 
out how much of nobility and character and fine enterprise there 
is everywhere in the world. The most that America can hope 
to do is to show, it may be, the finest example, not the only ex¬ 
ample, of the things that ought to benefit and promote the prog¬ 
ress of the world. 

So my interest in this movement is as much an interest in 
ourselves as in those whom we are trying to Americanize, be¬ 
cause if we are genuine Americans they cannot avoid the infec¬ 
tion ; whereas, if we are not genuine Americans, there will be 
nothing to infect them with, and no amount of teaching, no 
amount of exposition of the Constitution,—which I find very 
few persons understand,—no amount of dwelling upon the idea 
of liberty and of justice will accomplish the object we have in 
view, unless we ourselves illustrate the idea of justice and of 
liberty. My interest in this movement is, therefore, a two-fold 
interest. I believe it will assist us to become self-conscious in 
respect of the fundamental ideas of American life. When you 
ask a man to be loyal to a government, if he comes from some 
foreign countries, his idea is that he is expected to be loyal to a 
certain set of persons like a ruler or a body set in authority over 
him, but that is not the American idea. Our idea is that he is 
to be loyal to certain objects in life, and that the only reason he 
has a President and a Congress and a Governor and a State Leg¬ 
islature and courts is that the community shall have instrumentali¬ 
ties by which to promote those objects. It is a cooperative or¬ 
ganization expressing itself in this Constitution, expressing itself 
in these laws, intending to express itself in the exposition of 
those laws by the courts; and the idea of America is not so much 
that men are to be restrained and punished by the law as in¬ 
structed and guided by the law. That is the reason so many 
hopeful reforms come to grief. A law cannot work until it ex¬ 
presses the spirit of the community for which it is enacted, and 
if you try to enact into law what expresses only the spirit of a 
small coterie or of a small minority, you know, or at any rate 


30 


AMERICANISM 


you ought to know, beforehand that it is not going to work. The 
object of the law is that there, written upon these pages, the 
citizen should read the record of the experience of this state and 
nation; what they have concluded it is necessary for them to do 
because of the life they have lived and the things that they have 
discovered to be elements in that life. So that we ought to be 
careful to maintain a government at which the immigrant can 
look with the closest scrutiny and to which he should be at liberty 
to address this question: “You declare this to be a land of liberty 
and of equality and of justice; have you made it so by your law?” 
We ought to be able in our schools, in our night schools and in 
every other method of instructing these people, to show them 
that that has been our endeavor. We cannot conceal from them 
long the fact that we are just as human as any other nation, that 
we are just as selfish, that there are just as many mean people 
amongst us as anywhere else, that there are just as many people 
here who want to take advantage of other people as you can find 
in other countries, just as many cruel people, just as many people 
heartless when it comes to maintaining and promoting their own 
interest; but you can show that our object is to get these people 
in harness and see to it that they do not do any damage and are 
not allowed to indulge the passions which would bring injustice 
and calamity at last upon a nation whose object is spiritual and 
not material. 

America has built up a great body of wealth. America has 
become, from the physical point of view, one of the most power¬ 
ful nations in the world, a nation which if it took the pains to do 
so, could build that power up into one of the most formidable 
instruments in the world, one of the most formidable instru¬ 
ments of force, but which has no other idea than to use its force 
for ideal objects and not for self-aggrandizement. 

We have been disturbed recently, my fellow-citizens, by cer¬ 
tain symptoms which have showed themselves in our body politic. 
Certain men—I have never believed a great number—born in 
other lands, have in recent months thought more of those lands 
than they have of the honor and interest of the government 
under which they are now living. They have even gone so far 
as to draw apart in spirit and in organization from the rest of 
us to accomplish some special object of their own. I am not here 
going to utter any criticism of these people, but I want to say 
this, that such a thing as that is absolutely incompatible with the 


i 


AMERICANISM 


3i 


fundamental idea of loyalty, and that loyalty is not a self-pleasing 
virtue. I am not bound to be loyal to the United States to please 
myself. I am bound to be loyal to the United States because I 
live under its laws and am its citizen, and whether it hurts me 
or whether it benefits me, I am obliged to be loyal. Loyalty 
means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of 
self-sacrifice. Loyalty means that you ought to be ready to sacri¬ 
fice every interest that you have, and your life itself, if your 
country calls upon you to do so, and that is the sort of loyalty 
which ought to be inculcated into these newcomers, that they are 
not to be loyal only so long as they are pleased, but that, having 
once entered into this sacred relationship, they are bound to be 
loyal whether they are pleased or not; and that loyalty which is 
merely self-pleasing is only self-indulgence and selfishness. No 
man has ever risen to the real stature of spiritual manhood until 
he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to 
serve himself. 

These are the conceptions which we ought to teach the new¬ 
comers into our midst, and we ought to realize that the life of 
every one of us is part of the schooling, and that we cannot 
preach loyalty unless we set the example, that we cannot profess 
things with any influence upon others unless we practice them 
also. This process of Americanization is going to be a process 
of self-examination, a process of purification, a process of re¬ 
dedication to the things which America represents and is proud 
to represent. And it takes a great deal more courage and stead¬ 
fastness, my fellow citizens, to represent ideal things than to 
represent anything else. It is easy to lose your temper, and hard 
to keep it. It is easy to strike and sometimes very difficult to 
refrain from striking, and I think you will agree with me that 
we are most justified in being proud of doing the things that are 
hard to do and not the things that are easy. You do not settle 
things quickly by taking what seems to be the quickest way to 
settle them. You may make tb^ complication just that much the 
more profound and inextricable, and, therefore, what I believe 
America should exalt above everything else is the sovereignty of 
thoughtfulness and sympathy and vision as against the grosser 
impulses of mankind. No nation can live without vision, and 
no vision will exalt a nation except the vision of real liberty and 
real justice and purity of conduct. 


32 


AMERICANISM 


PEACE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC 

Henry Van Dyke 

PROFESSOR, POET, UNITED STATES MINISTER 

O Lord our God, Thy mighty hand 
Hath made our country free; 

From all her broad and happy land 
May praise arise to Thee. 

Fulfill the promise of her youth, 

Her liberty defend; 

By law and order, love and truth, 

America befriend! 

The strength of every State increase 
In Union’s golden chain; 

Her thousand cities fill with peace, 

Her million fields with grain. 

The virtues of her mingled blood 
In one new people blend; 

By unity and brotherhood, 

America befriend! 

O suffer not her feet to stray, 

But guide her untaught might; 

That she may walk in peaceful da\ r , 

And lead the world in light. 

Bring down the proud, lift up the poor, 

Unequal ways amend; 

By justice, nation-wide and sure, 

America befriend! 

Thro’ all the waiting land proclaim 
Thy gospel of good-will; 

And may the music of Thy name 
In every bosom thrill. 

O’er hill and vale, from sea to sea, 

Thy holy reign extend; 

By faith and hope and charity, 

America befriend! 

The Grand Canyon and other poems. 42-43. New York. Scribner. 1914. 


AMERICANISM 


33 


AMERICANISM: WHAT IT IS 

David Jayne Hill 

COLLEGE PRESIDENT, PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY, UNITED 
STATES AMBASSADOR, HISTORIAN, MEMBER OF THE PERMANENT 
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL 

Long before Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote of the “Contrat 
Social,” or John Locke of a “Civil Compact,” a company of plain 
men, sailing over wintry seas to an unknown land with the pur¬ 
pose of escaping the too heavy hand of an absolute government, 
on November n, 1620, as they were approaching the shores of 
what was afterward New England, drew up and signed in the 
cabin of their little ship a compact which expressed a new idea 
of human government. This was nearly thirty years before the 
famous “Agreement of the People” of 1647, in which the follow¬ 
ers of Cromwell endeavored to establish for the security of their 
rights against the encroachments of arbitrary power a supreme 
law placed above the power of Parliament. The compact written 
in the Maj'flower pledged the signers not only to frame for 
themselves “just and equal laws,” but “to yield to them all due 
submission and obedience.” Here was the beginning of real self- 
government. 

There was nothing original in the mere fact of a written com¬ 
pact, for written compacts had long before been extorted from 
kings and emperors by popular uprisings. The new leaven was 
the voluntary submission to self-imposed law, as a means of se¬ 
curing a permanent guarantee of individual rights. 

****** 

New Conception of the State 

For the first time since Europe emerged from primitive sav¬ 
agery, an opportunity was offered for the free exercise of intel¬ 
ligence in considering the fundamental problems of government, 
without interference on the part of arbitrary power and dynastic 
interests. 

****** 

The result was a new and distinctive conception of the State 
—a conception differing by the whole diameter of human experi¬ 
ence from that which was then generally accepted in other parts 
of the world, not excepting England. 


34 


AMERICANISM 


In what, then, did the new conception consist? 

Distinctive American Doctrine 

The American idea was that there are certain rights and lib¬ 
erties which should never be subject to abridgement by law, and 
that encroachments upon these rights and liberties by a portion 
—even by a majority—of the people, or by any government they 
might establish, should be, through a superior and permanent 
law, declared illegal. For this there was necessary a voluntary 
renunciation of power in accordance with fixed principles of 
justice. 

****** 

Essential Elements in The American Conception 

In truth, success cannot be expected from any system of gov¬ 
ernment unless the individuals who compose the State entertain 
respect for the personal rights and liberties of all. The 
moment a disposition prevails to deny these, or to impose a dom¬ 
inant will upon the community, the system of guarantees is un¬ 
dermined; and it is in its guarantees of personal liberty that the 
American conception consists. Local autonomy in all local mat¬ 
ters, popular representation in State and National affairs, the 
federation of independent communities, a body of unalterable 
principles accepted in a fundamental law, judicial decision in the 
settlement of differences—these are essential elements in the 
American conception of the State. 

****** 

Friends and Enemies of Constitutionalism 

The dangers to the American conception of constitutional 
government do not arise from the open opposition of its en¬ 
emies, for in the field of free debate it is abundantly able to de¬ 
fend itself. Its real foes—and they are not few—are those who 
do not avowedly attack or resist it; but who, while professing to 
be its friends, and even its advocates, secretly repudiate or in¬ 
tentionally pervert its fundamental principles. 

In contrast with the political absolutism which it v/as in¬ 
tended to destroy, and which it has endeavored to supersede, 
American constitutional government is based upon the principle 
of equal guarantees for the rights of all citizens, without dis¬ 
tinction of persons or classes, under the protection of co-ordinate 
and distributed powers, exercised by public officers freely chosen 


AMERICANISM 


35 


by the people, and revocable after fixed periods of office. Recog¬ 
nizing lift, personal liberty, and property as elements of unalien¬ 
able right, the American system of government aims to guard 
these from every form of violation. 

The mere statement of the meaning of that system plainly in¬ 
dicates who are its natural enemies. These include all those 
who, in any form whatever, desire to make the State their pri¬ 
vate servant, and through control of the public powers use it to 
serve their own personal or class interests at the expense of 
others. 

The division of men into friends and enemies of the Amer¬ 
ican idea of constitutional government is based upon the attitude 
they assume toward its fundamental principle. This principle 
being the existence of equal and adequate guarantees, by which 
the life, the personal liberty, and the property of every citizen 
are rendered inviolate, every person and every organization that 
aims by means of exceptional legislation to secure special ad¬ 
vantages to the detriment of others must be classed as an enemy 
of the American system, which—although not a guarantee of 
equal conditions, which is impossible—is essentially a guarantee 
of equal rights. ... 

A second method of attack upon the Federal Constitution is 
through the encroachment of one or more of the three divisions 
of public power upon the legitimate domain of others. 

****** 

The Needed Revival of Americanism 

The only means of preventing the ultimate collapse of con¬ 
stitutionalism as conceived by the founders of this republic, and 
the only remedy if this calamity is in some degree already upon 
us, is a firm determination on the part of the people that arbitrary 
power in every form must be renounced; that life, liberty, and 
property shall still enjoy protection against any form of absol¬ 
utism that may be asserted within the State. 

To apply this remedy the country needs two things: first, to 
consider seriously the drift of the social forces now operating 
among us, with a view to forming a clear conception of the de¬ 
gree in which we are adhering to or departing from the spirit of 
conformity to just and equal laws; and, second, an active move¬ 
ment on the part of thoughtful citizens to oppose anti-constitu¬ 
tional tendencies. 


36 


AMERICANISM 


Principles Versus Personalities 

Naturally, in moments of indecision men look for leaders, 
but unless they look also for principles they look in vain. The 
choice must be made between experiment and experience, be¬ 
tween arbitrary decisions and fundamental principles; in a word 
between political anarchy and constitutional government. 

****** 

Responsibility in a True Democracy 

It is clear that the citizen must accept and obey some form of 
public authority; but it is equally clear that public authority must 
consent to limit itself before it goes so far as to invade the 
sanctuary of the personal freedom that is essential to individual 
responsibility. 

The true solution is found in the American conception of the 
State, and in this voluntary self-limitation of power lies the true 
foundation of Democracy. In this system the citizen, being free, 
is himself responsible for government. He is a constituent, and 
not a mere subject, of the State. He acts through represent¬ 
atives whom he believes to be competent to deliberate wisely and 
conclude justly; but, in any case, they are his representatives, 
and are subject to his approbation or disapprobation. The 
government, whatever it is, is his government. If it be good, he 
must see that it is preserved and continued. If it be bad, he 
must see that it is reformed or discontinued. Whatever it is, he 
can never justly blame it. He can only blame himself. 

****** 

Democracy Versus Imperialism 

This constitutional idea of the limited powers of government, 
and this alone, is really antithetical to Imperialism, whose watch¬ 
word is unlimited power. Imperialism does not inquire or ex¬ 
hort, it commands and compels. It wants nothing of its subjects 
but abject submission and obedience. He is not, in its concep¬ 
tion, a constituent of the State. He possesses no inherent rights. 
He can claim as his rights only what the government accords to 
him. 

Who, then, is the government? The man who is in power 
and has the force to remain in power. In the imperial formula, 
“The will of the prince is law.” Authority, in this conception of 
it, does not proceed from any source of responsibility toward 
men. The prince may be responsible to God, but not to man. 


AMERICANISM 


37 


He renders an account to no one. For the subject his decision is 
final. 

* * * * * * 

Our Own Relation to Imperialism 

We know, all of us, and it requires no special indictment of 
any nation to prove it, that the spirit of Imperialism still exists 
in the world, that it is not confined to one nation, that it is ac¬ 
tive, that it may somewhere be triumphant, or, what is worse, 
that it may somewhere be disappointed of its expectations, with¬ 
out being extinguished, and look for new fields of conquest. 
Some day we may have to resist the intrusion of it into our own 
sphere of responsibility; and what shall we do then? Shall we 
remain passive, or shall we act? 

We know further that the greatest danger of all is the at¬ 
tempt to amalgamate the spirit of Imperialism with the spirit of 
Democracy; for this would probably result in the triumph of 
Imperialism in our own republic and the sapping of virtues of 
the democratic ideal. The truth is that there is a deadly incom¬ 
patibility in the effort to serve two masters. If we really aim at 
empire, it is suicidal to cultivate Democracy. If we love De¬ 
mocracy, we must renounce the spirit of conquest and world 
domination. The two currents, coming together, serve to weaken 
the national energies and to paralyze the body politic. 

****** 

An American Platform of Principles 

Eliminating from discussion, therefore, all that does not con¬ 
cern us as a nation, let us confine our attention to that which is 
vital to our national existence. 

There are certain fundamental principles which all thoughtful 
American citizens unite in accepting. Among these are the 
propositions: that government should exist for the sake of the 
governed; that a just government is based upon the equal rights 
of all the people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; 
that, in consequence, governments, in their relation to one an¬ 
other, should recognize these rights; and that all governments, 
with due respect for the principles of humanity, should regulate 
their conduct by just laws, freely accepted and faithfully ob¬ 
served. 

This simple creed needs no enlargement, and no argumen¬ 
tative justification. It is a platform of world politics upon which 


38 


AMERICANISM 


all American citizens, irrespective of their ancestral origin or 
their partisan preferences, may unite. These doctrines are at 
once our birthright and a sacred trust. They are the lodestone 
that has attracted the oppressed of all nations to these shores. 
They have made us a great, a prosperous, and a mighty people. 
No true American wishes to withdraw allegiance to them, or 
would hesitate to shed the last drop of his blood in defense of 
them, if they were menaced with destruction. 

Americanism: what it is, 14-15; 16; 16-17; 26; 41-2; 51-2; 62; 77-8; 
133-5; 148-9; 175-7. New York. Appleton. 1916. 


FEAR GOD AND TAKE YOUR OWN PART 
( 1915 ) 

Theodore Roosevelt 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, I9OI-I908 

Let this nation fear God and take its own part. Let it scorn 
to do wrong to great or small. Let it exercise patience and 
charity toward all other peoples, and yet at whatever cost un¬ 
flinchingly stand for the right when the right is menaced by the 
might which backs wrong. Let it furthermore remember that 
the only way in which successfully to oppose wrong which is 
backed by might is to put over against it right which is backed 
by might. Wanton or unjust war is an abhorrent evil. But 
there are even worse evils. Until, as a nation, we learn to put 
honor and duty above safety, and to encounter any hazard with 
stern joy rather than fail in our obligations to ourselves and 
others, it is mere folly to talk of entering into leagues for world 
peace or into any other movements of like character. The only 
kind of peace worth having is the peace of righteousness and 
justice; the only nation that can serve other nations is the 
strong and valiant nation; and the only great international poli¬ 
cies worth considering are those whose upholders believe in 
them strongly enough to fight for them. The Monroe Doctrine 
is as strong as the United States navy, and no stronger. A na¬ 
tion is utterly contemptible if it will not fight in its own de¬ 
fence. A nation is not wholly admirable unless in time of stress 
it will go to war for a great ideal wholly unconnected with its 
immediate material interest 


AMERICANISM 


39 


Let us prepare not merely in military matters, but in our so¬ 
cial and industrial life. There can be no sound relationship to¬ 
ward other nations unless there is also sound relationship among 
our own citizens within our own ranks. Let us insist on the 
thorough Americanization of the newcomers to our shores, and 
let us also insist on the thorough Americanization of ourselves. 
Let us encourage the fullest industrial activity, and give the 
amplest industrial reward to those whose activities are most im¬ 
portant for securing industrial success, and at the same time let 
us see that justice is done and wisdom shown in securing the 
welfare of every man, woman, and child within our borders. 
Finally, let us remember that we can do nothing to help other 
peoples, and nothing permanently to secure material well-being 
and social justice within our own borders, unless we feel with 
all our hearts devotion to this country, unless we are Americans 
and nothing else, and unless in time of peace by universal mil¬ 
itary training, by insistence upon the obligations of every man 
and every woman to serve the commonwealth both in peace and 
war, and, above all, by a high and fine preparedness of soul and 
spirit, we fit ourselves to hold our own against all possible 
aggression from without. 

A SWORD FOR DEFENSE 

The fundamental evil in this country is the lack of sufficiently 
general appreciation of the responsibility of citizenship. Unfair 
business methods, the misused power of capital, the unjustified 
activities of labor, pork-barrel legislation and graft among power¬ 
ful politicians have all been made possible by, and have been 
manifestations of, this fundamental evil. Nothing would do more 
to remedy this evil than the kind of training in citizenship, in 
patriotism and in efficiency, which would come as the result of 
universal service on the Swiss or Australian models or rather on 
a combination of the two adapted to our needs. There should 
be military training, as part of a high-school education which 
should include all-round training for citizenship. This training 
should begin in the schools in serious fashion at about the age 
of 16. Then between the ages of 18 and 21 there should be six 
months actual and continuous service in the field with the colors. 

Such universal training would give our young men the dis¬ 
cipline, the sense of orderly liberty and of loyalty to the inter- 


40 


AMERICANISM 


ests of the whole people which would tell in striking manner for 
national cohesion and efficiency. It would tend to enable us in 
time of need to mobilize not only troops but workers and finan¬ 
cial resources and industry itself and to coordinate all the factors 
in national life. There can be no such mobilization and coor¬ 
dination until we appreciate the necessity and value of national 
organization; and universal service would be a most powerful 
factor in bringing about such general appreciation. 

As a result of it, every man, whether he carried a rifle or 
labored on public works or managed a business or worked on a 
railway, would have a clearer conception of his obligations to 
the State. It would moreover be a potent method of American¬ 
izing the immigrant. The events of the last eighteen months 
have shown us the gravity of the danger to American life of the 
existence of foreign communities within our borders, where men 
are taught to preserve their former national identity instead of 
entering unreservedly into our own national life. The hy¬ 
phenated American of any type is a bad American and an enemy 
to this country. The best possible antiscorbutic for this danger 
is universal service. 

Such a service would be essentially democratic. A man has 
no more right to escape military service in time of need than he 
has to escape paying his taxes. We do not beseech a man to 
“volunteer” to pay his taxes, or scream that it would be “an in¬ 
fringement of his liberty” and "contrary to our traditions” to 
make him pay them. We simply notify him how much he is to 
pay, and when, and where. We ought to deal just as summarily 
with him as regards the even more important matter of personal 
service to the commonwealth in time of war. He is not fit to 
live in a state unless when the state’s life is at stake he is willing 
and able to serve it in any way that it can best use his abilities, 
and, as an incident, to fight for it if the state believes it can best 
use him in such fashion. Unless he takes this position he is not 
fit to be a citizen and should be deprived of the vote. Universal 
service is the practical, democratic method of dealing with this 
problem. Rich boy and poor boy would sleep under the same 
dog tent and march shoulder to shoulder in the hikes. Such 
service would have an immense democratizing effect. It would 
improve the health of the community, physically and morally. 
It would increase our national power of discipline and self-con¬ 
trol. It would produce a national state of mind which would 


AMERICANISM 


4i 


enable us all more clearly to realize the necessity of social legis- 
lation in dealing with industrial conditions of every kind, from 
unemployment among men and the labor of women and chil¬ 
dren to the encouragement of business activities. 

What I thus advocate is nothing new. I am merely applying 
to present day conditions the advice given by President George 
Washington when he submitted a plan for universal military 
training in his special message to Congress of January 21st, 1790. 
This plan advocated military training for all the young men of 
the country, stating that “every man of proper age and ability of 
body is firmly bound by the social compact to perform personally 
his proportion of military duty for the defence of the state,” 
and that “all men of the legal military age should be held re¬ 
sponsible for different degrees of military service,” and that “the 
United States are to provide for arming, organizing and dis¬ 
ciplining these men.” This is merely another name for com¬ 
pulsory universal service, and the plan actually provided that no 
man of military age should vote unless hewpossessed a certificate 
showing that he had performed such service. Washington did 
not regard professional pacifists as entitled to the suffrage. 

The larger Americanism demands that we insist that every 
immigrant who comes here shall become an American citizen 
and nothing else; if he shows that he still remains at heart more 
loyal to another land, let him be promptly returned to that land; 
and if, on the other hand, he shows that he is in good faith and 
whole-heartedly an American, let him be treated as on a full 
equality with the native born. This means that foreign born and 
native born alike should be trained to absolute loyalty to the 
flag, and trained so as to be able effectively to defend the flag. 
The larger Americanism demands that we refuse to be sundered 
from one another along lines of class or creed or section or na¬ 
tional origin; that we judge each American on his merits as a 
man; that we work for the well-being of our bodily selves, 
but also for the well-being of our spiritual selves; that we con¬ 
sider safety, but that we put honor and duty ahead of safety. 
Only thus shall we stand erect before the world, high of heart, 
the masters of our own souls, fit to be the fathers of a race of 
freemen who shall make and shall keep this land all that it 
seemed to the prophetic vision of the mighty men who founded it 
and the mighty men who saved it. 


42 


AMERICANISM 


Americanism 

I hold that in this country there must be complete severance 
of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for 
the purpose of advancing any particular creed; and therefore 
that the public schools shall be nonsectarian and no public moneys 
appropriated for sectarian schools. As a. necessary corollary to 
this, not only the pupils but the members of the teaching force 
and the school officials of all kinds must be treated exactly on a 
par, no matter what their creed; and there must be no more dis¬ 
crimination against Jew or Catholic or Protestant than discrim¬ 
ination in favor of Jew, Catholic or Protestant. Whoever makes 
such discrimination is an enemy of the public schools. 

What is true of creed is no less true of nationality. There is 
no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I 
refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized 
Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever 
known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. 
But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is 
just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as 
of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French be¬ 
fore the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of 
the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. 
We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other 
allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, 
then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an Amer¬ 
ican as any one else. 

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to 
ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation 
at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling 
nationalities, an intricate knot of German-Americans, Irish- 
Americans, English-Americans, French-Americans, Scandinavian- 
Americans, or Italian-Americans, each preserving its separate 
nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans 
of that nationality than with the other citizens of the Amer¬ 
ican Republic. The men who do not become Americans and 
nothing else are hyphenated Americans; and there ought to be 
no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself 
an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he 
is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly 
mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place 


AMERICANISM 


43 


here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels 
his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good 
American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American 
who is a good American. The only man who is a good Amer¬ 
ican is the man who is an American and nothing else. 

I appeal to history. Among the generals of Washington in 
the Revolutionary War were Greene, Putnam and Lee, who 
were of English descent; Wayne and Sullivan, who were of 
Irish descent; Marion, who was of French descent; Schuyler, 
who was of Dutch descent, and Muhlenberg and Herkimer, who 
were of German descent. But they were all of them Americans 
and nothing else, just as much as Washington. Carroll of Car¬ 
rollton was a Catholic; Hancock a Protestant; Jefferson was 
heterodox from the standpoint of any orthodox creed; but these 
and all other signers of the Declaration of Independence stood 
on an equality of duty and right and liberty, as Americans and 
nothing else. 

So it was in the Civil War. Farragut’s father was born in 
Spain and Sheridan’s father in Ireland; Sherman and Thomas 
were of English and Custer of German descent; and Grant came 
of a long line of American ancestors whose original home had 
been Scotland. But the Admiral was not a Spanish-American; 
and the Generals were not Scotch-Americans or Irish-Amer- 
icans or English-Americans or German-Americans. They were 
all Americans and nothing else. 

Fear God and take your own part. pp. 55-7; 104-09; 361-3- New York. 
George H. Doran Company. 1916. 


THE DEMOCRACY OF TO-MORROW 

Frederic C. Howe 

U. S. COMMISSIONER OP* IMMIGRATION, PORT OF NEW YORK 
AUTHOR, LAWYER, ADMINISTRATOR, COUNSELLOR 
STUDENT OF HUMAN NEEDS 

We are beginning to see that democracy is something more 
than the freedom to speak, to write, to worship as one wills, to 
be faced with one’s accusers, and to be tried by one’s peers; it 
involves far more than the absence of absolute government or 


44 


AMERICANISM 


the tyranny of an hereditary caste. The right of participation 
in the government, irrespective of birth, race, and creed, and the 
substitution of manhood suffrage and democratic forms for 
monarchical institutions, do not of themselves constitute democ¬ 
racy, immeasurably valuable as these achievements are. 

Democracy, too, involves far more than a system of taxation 
that is ethically just; it involves far more than the right to trade 
where one wills, unrestrained by tariff laws; it involves far more 
than the taking by the community of the wealth that the com¬ 
munity creates, or the ownership by the people of the highways, 
so essential to the common life. These fundamental changes in 
the relation of mankind to its environment do not constitute an 
end in themselves, any more than does the right of the ballot or 
of participation in the government. All these things are but 
means to an end, and that end is industrial freedom, a freedom 
as full and as free to the poor as to the rich, to the next genera¬ 
tion and the generations which follow as it was to the genera¬ 
tions which spread themselves out upon an unappropriated con¬ 
tinent. Freedom is an industrial far more than a political condi¬ 
tion. 

Unfortunately the idea of freedom suggests license when 
demanded for all, just as it involves license when enjoyed by the 
few. Privilege invokes the beneficence of freedom when it 
would stay the hand of the state in any attempt to control its 
excesses, just as it invokes the perils of freedom when it would 
be protected from its consequences. Privilege protests in the 
name of freedom against regulation of the railways or the fran¬ 
chise corporations, or the protection by law of children, women 
workers, and those engaged in hazardous pursuits. It attacks 
the labor union, the closed shop, and the eight-hour day as sub¬ 
versive of personal liberty, but invokes another argument for 
protection from foreign competition or the right to monopoly 
combinations. 

The political economist as well as the socialist has con¬ 
founded the evils of the present industrial system with freedom. 
Laissez faire is credited with the tenement, the sweat-shop, and 
the excesses of capitalism. But freedom, even the laissez faire 
of Quesnay, Turgot, Dupont de Nemours, and the brilliant school 
of thinkers who laid the foundation for the abolition of the 
feudal system and the oppressive restraints of mercantilism, is a 
far different thing from the travesty of industrial liberty which 


AMERICANISM 


45 


has masqueraded for nearly a century under that name. For 
nowhere has there been freedom, the freedom of access by hu¬ 
manity to the source of all life. The land and the resources of 
nature have been locked up with title-deeds of private owner¬ 
ship, and mankind has been forced to content itself with such 
opportunities as privilege offered. 

It was economic freedom that made America what she is. 
It was this that lies at the foundation of our democracy. It was 
not the Declaration of Independence, it was not the Federal 
Constitution, it was not the freedom from an established church 
or hereditary privilege, it was not even the ballot; it was freedom 
of access to the earth and all its fulness, it was the free land that 
explained our institutions, it was this that gave us industrial 
eminence. The things we hold most dear are but the reflections 
of the relations of the American people to the land. And it is 
the passing of this freedom, it is the enclosure of the land and 
the coming of the tenant, it is the monopoly of that which is the 
source of all life, that has brought down the curse of poverty 
upon us, just as it did in Rome, just as it did in France, just as 
it did in Ireland, and just as it did in England at a later day. 

The remedy herein proposed will restore the foundations 
upon which democracy is laid. It will insure liberty for all 
time. It will insure equality of opportunhy in every walk of life 
and will guarantee to the worker all that his genius, his talent, 
or his labor produces. The open door, the open highway, and 
the socialization of the land will destroy the tribute now exacted 
by monopoly. It will usher in a social order in which men will 
be as free from the fear of want as they are from want itself. 
Then men will look forward not to diminishing, but to the in¬ 
creasing opportunities, for freedom will not only continuously 
augment the wealth of the world, it will insure its just distribu¬ 
tion to those who produce it. 

"Privilege and Democracy in America,” 294-302. . New York. Charles 
Scribners’ Sons. 1910. 


46 


AMERICANISM 


OPPORTUNITY AND OBLIGATIONS IN 
AMERICA (1916) 

Charles Seymour Whitman 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, 1914- 

You who are before me to-day, recently made citizens of the 
Republic, are or may be Americans in a very true sense of the 
word. No mere accident of birth is responsible for your pres¬ 
ence in the United States. You are here of your own free 
choice. You left the land of your fathers not because that land 
had become less than dear to you, but because of the passion for 
freedom that was in your hearts and in your souls. America 
drew you because you were instinct with the spirit of America; 
because you had that in you which made you eager to test the 
bright promise of a country wherein no artificial barriers stand 
between the humblest citizen and the heights of his ambition. 
Just living in America does not make one an American. I know 
very many good and worthy people who were born id the United 
States and whose fathers before them were born in the United 
States, and yet who have never really come to America in the 
deep sense of the word. 

It is equally true that no man is a democrat by reason of the 
fact that he happens to live in a democracy. Democracy and 
Americanism, after all, have very little to do with things physi¬ 
cal. They are more concerned with the spirit than with the 
body. They are things that man has got to feel, to think, to 
struggle for, and to live for. 

America is more than a mere body of land with certain fixed 
boundaries and a certain form of government. It is an idea, the 
most tremendous idea ever conceived by the human mind. It is 
not so much a place in which to live as a place in which to hope. 
And because you had this idea, and because you had the hope, 
you were Americans from the first. Naturalization was not 
necessary to make you part of us. All that naturalization has 
done is to give you the ballot, that is, the tool that will enable 
you to bear your proper share in the work of making the dreams 
of democracy come true. 

In no sense is citizenship a reward that has been given to you 


AMERICANISM 


47 


because you have lived in the United States a certain number of 
years. It is a job that has been given to you. Keep this truth 
in mind. Never lose sight of the fact that you have been ad¬ 
mitted to full partnership in the greatest enterprise that the 
world has ever seen, and that the success or failure of this enter¬ 
prise is as much dependent upon you as though your forefathers 
had been among those who first set foot upon Plymouth Rock. 

Many of you, perhaps, are come from countries where kings 
sit upon thrones by virtue of the theory of divine right. To-day 
you yourselves sit upon a throne; you yourselves are kings by 
virtue of unalienable human rights first set forth in the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. 

It is no empty word I say to you. Your sovereignty is abso¬ 
lute. With the ballot your authority is unquestioned. No he¬ 
reditary caste has power to frown you down or to dispute your 
commands. Those in office, high office as well as low, cannot 
reach to their positions without your consent. It will be accord¬ 
ing to your desires that laws are made and that policies of 
government are adopted and given effect. 

What I urge upon you is the proper pride of kings. Let no 
habit of thought or life blind you to the greatness of the power 
that a democracy has conferred upon you. Do not cheapen it by 
indifference; do not surrender it through neglect. Hold the 
right to vote as an opportunity for the display of a royal pre¬ 
rogative that contains within itself not only your own happiness, 
but the happiness of countless thousands who are groping in the 
shadows. 

This will be no easy task. It is a tragedy of great blessings 
that they lose their importance as they lose their novelty. As 
you enter into the civic life of the community and the nation, it 
may well be that you will find many citizens who do not possess 
any proper appreciation of the ballot. You will see men, many of 
them native born, who do not even take the trouble to go to the 
polls on election day. You will see others who have no larger 
use for the vote than to use it as an expression of their inherited 
prejudices, casting ballots as boys throw stones. And it may 
even be that you will be saddened by the sight of citizens so lost 
to the meaning of democracy that they even sell their votes to 
men who have selfish interests to serve. 

It is your privilege to aid in the great task of bringing this 
indifference and this evil to an end. Let no election day pass 


48 


AMERICANISM 


without the casting of your ballot, and take pains to see that 
every vote is the vote of honesty, intelligence, and true Amer¬ 
icanism. By so doing you will not only be true to yourselves, 
but true to the country of your love and your adoption. 

It is at once the weakness and the strength of a democracy 
that it is what the people make it. It can be lifted toward 
heaven or it can sink to the depths. It can give liberty, justice, 
and equality the fullest, finest expression or it can imprison op¬ 
portunity and put greed in power. It is for you, and for every 
other citizen, to choose. 

The doors of America have ever been opened to the world. 
Many attempts have been made to close them, but the voice of 
the people has never failed to be lifted against these attempts. 

Do not, however, be so blind as to get the idea that America 
is not interested in education, or that America does not demand 
education of its citizens. The very fate of democracy hangs on 
the intelligence or ignorance of those who govern the United 
States by their votes. No country in the world spends so much 
money on its schools. In the deserts and mountains, even as in 
the great cities, every provision is made for the education of our 
growing youth, and even for the education of those of older 
years who were without such advantages when young. 

The Church and the Schoolhouse, testifying alike to a peo¬ 
ple’s devotion to God and progress, have been builded even be¬ 
fore homes. Even the needs of the body have not been allowed 
to stand before the needs of the spirit. America, by its very ex¬ 
istence, promises freedom to the world, but the measure of that 
freedom, the splendor of that liberty, is found in the develop¬ 
ment of mass intelligence, mass education. 

It is not a crime to have come to this country unlettered and 
unlearned. It is a crime, however, if illiteracy is preferred to 
the open doors of knowledge. 

In the schoolhouses of America one may find democracy’s 
confession as well as democracy’s declaration. We do not spend 
millions on education out of no larger hope than that our children 
may reach the same level on which we stand. We maintain our 
thousands of schoolhouses out of our passionate desire to give 
our children a better, finer chance than their fathers had, to en¬ 
able them to reach the heights of which we only dream. 

There is no doubt that many hopeful thousands come to 


AMERICANISM 


49 


America in the idea that the battles of democracy have all been 
fought, that every possible victory has been won. Many, coming 
into sight of the Statue of Liberty for the first time, are firmly 
of the opinion that America stands upon the ultimate heights. 
This is not true, nor will it ever be quite true, for the struggle 
for liberty, justice, and equality is the struggle everlasting. 

We have done much, but there is still much to do. Out of 
the wonders wrought by democracy we are all too prone to for¬ 
get that democracy is still in its swaddling clothes. Only one 
hundred and thirty-eight years ago did the Declaration of In¬ 
dependence hearten the world with the splendor of its promise. 
There were forests and deserts and mountains to conquer, a daily 
struggle against wild beasts and wilder men, a terrible war to 
establish the principle that freedom did not take account of color, 
and then, even as a people who have not paused to take breath, 
our whole civilization changed from agricultural to industrial. 

Only yesterday the United States was a vast farm. To-day it 
is a factory. Old laws have had to be changed, new laws have 
had to be made. What older nations required centuries to do, 
the United States has had to do in years. 

It is possible that you, and thousands of others like you, will 
find evils and injustices such as you had hoped to escape when 
you went down to the sea and took ships for this land of free¬ 
dom. There is this difference, however, between those evils and 
injustices from which you have fled and those which you may 
find. It will be in your power to fight them—in your power to 
correct them. If they persist it is because you choose to let them 
persist. 

It is for this kind of fighting that America calls upon her citi¬ 
zens—it is this sort of militarism that America needs and de¬ 
mands. The United States has a dream of conquest just as 
much as any empire has had a dream of conquest but it is not 
with the territory of other countries that this dream is con¬ 
cerned. What we are pledged to do is to conquer ourselves—to 
wage war against our own mean desires, our own selfishness, 
and to win the great victory that will put the common good 
above the personal good, the common welfare above the in¬ 
dividual welfare. 

America can be shamed, but only by herself. It is not in the 
power of any other nation to shame us. If we fail to give fullest 
meaning to liberty, justice and equality; if we fail to put founda- 


50 


AMERICANISM 


tions under the air-castles of democracy; if we yield to the 
savage ambitions that urge strength to take advantage of weak¬ 
ness, then we shall have deserved not only our own contempt but 
the contempt of all those nations who have sneered at our ex¬ 
periment in democracy as fantastic and futile. 

As never before in our history, the world is making call upon 
the strength of democracy. The shock of war is shaking Europe 
to its very foundations, and the established standards that have 
governed human relations are menaced by the passions of con¬ 
flict. 

America only remains on guard; America alone is possessed 
of the peace and power to keep inviolate the principles of justice 
and fraternity. If we are false to ourselves we shall be false to 
civilization, for we shall doom the future to confusion and hope¬ 
lessness. ! 

It is no easy task to which the United States has addressed it¬ 
self. When all the world is at war, peace has many irritations. 
Made up, as we are, of every nationality, every color and every 
creed, it is inevitable that the prejudices of partisanship should 
be felt; that ties of blood should make appeal to sympathies. 

It is the solemn obligation of every citizen to see that such 
prejudices and such sympathies w T ork no forgetfulness of the 
duties that are owed to America and that America demands. 
Not even in the days when the thirteen colonies resolved upon 
independence and democracy has there been such a need for 
unity in thought, unity in purpose, unity in devotion and unity in 
service. 

You have come into the drama of American life at a great 
moment. The opportunity to play a very real part in that drama 
is yours. The possibilities of American citizenship are unlimited. 
You may not realize in the land of your adoption all that you 
have fondly hoped and dreamed in your homes across the sea. 
The struggles for truth, for justice and for human progress are 
not all over, there are contests yet to win, and the great people, 
who have welcomed you to share in the blessings of American 
civilization have a right to call upon you to assist in carrying 
that civilization to a level of human attainment, the highest that 
the world has ever known. 


Itnmig. in Amer. Rev. 2:51-4. April, 1916. 


AMERICANISM 


5i 


TRANS-NATIONAL AMERICA 

Randolph S. Bourne 

STUDENT, WRITER, EDITOR 

No reverberatory effect of the great war has caused American 
public opinion more solicitude than the failure of the “melting- 
pot.” The discovery of diverse nationalistic feelings among our 
great alien population has come to most people as an intense 
shock. It has brought out the unpleasant inconsistencies of our 
traditional beliefs. We have had to watch hard-hearted old 
Brahmins virtuously indignant at the spectacle of the immigrant 
refusing to be melted, while they jeer at patriots like Mary Antin 
who write about “our forefathers.” We have had to listen to 
publicists who express themselves as stunned by the evidence 
of vigorous nationalistic and cultural movements in this coun¬ 
try among Germans, Scandinavians, Bohemians, and Poles, while 
in the same breath they insist that the alien shall be forcibly 
assimilated to that Anglo-Saxon tradition which they unques- 
tioningly label “American.” 

As the unpleasant truth has come upon us that assimilation in 
this country was proceeding on lines very different from those 
we had marked out for it, we found ourselves inclined to blame 
those who were thwarting our prophecies. The truth became 
culpable. We blamed the war, we blamed the Germans. And 
then we discovered with a moral shock that these movements had 
been making great headway before the war even began. We 
found that the tendency, reprehensible and paradoxical as it might 
be, has been for the national clusters of immigrants, as they be¬ 
came more and more firmly established and more and more pros¬ 
perous, to cultivate more and more assiduously the literatures and 
cultural traditions of their homelands. Assimilation, in other 
words, instead of washing out the memories of Europe, made 
them more and more intensely real. Just as these clusters became 
more and more objectively American, did they become more and 
more German or Scandinavian or Bohemian or Polish. 

To face the fact that our aliens are already strong enough 
to take a share in the direction of their own destiny, and that the 
strong cultural movements represented by the foreign press, 
schools, and colonies are a challenge to our facile attempts, is 
not, however, to admit the failure of Americanization. It is 


52 


AMERICANISM 


not to fear the failure of democracy. It is rather to urge us to 
an investigation of what Americanism may rightly mean. It is 
to ask ourselves whether our ideal has been broad or narrow-— 
whether perhaps the time has not come to assert a higher ideal 
than the “melting-pot.” Surely we cannot be certain of our 
spiritual democracy when, claiming to melt the nations within 
us to a comprehension of our free and democratic institutions, 
we fly into panic at the first sign of their own will and tendency. 
We act as if we wanted Americanization to take place only on 
our own terms, and not by the consent of the governed. All our 
elaborate machinery of settlement and school and union, of social 
and political naturalization, however, will move with friction just 
in so far as it neglects to take into account this strong and virile 
insistence that America shall be what the immigrant will have a 
hand in making it, and not what a ruling class, descendant of 
those British stocks which were the first permanent immigrants, 
decide that America shall be made. This is the condition which 
confronts us, and which demands a clear and general readjust¬ 
ment of our attitude and our ideal. 

Atlantic Monthly 118:86-97. July, 1916. 


DEMOCRACY OF INTERNATIONALISM 

DIRECTOR IMMIGRANTS’ PROTECTIVE LEAGUE, CHICAGO 

Grace Abbot 

The demand for “nationalism” in Europe is the democratic 
demand that a people shall be free to speak the language which 
they prefer and develop their own national culture and character. 
Here in the United States, we are working out, blunderingly, and 
with the injustice which comes from inherited prejudices, the 
democracy not of nationalism but of internationalism. If Eng¬ 
lish, Irish, Polish, German, Scandinavian, Russian, Lithuanian 
and all the other races of the earth can live together—each mak¬ 
ing his own distinctive contribution to our common life; if we 
can respect those differences which result from a different social 
and political environment and see the common interests that 
unite all people, we will meet the American opportunity. If, in¬ 
stead we blindly follow Europe and cultivate a national egotism, 
we shall need to develop a contempt for others and to foster 


AMERICANISM 


53 


those national hatreds and jealousies which are necessary for 
aggressive nationalism. 

Is it too much for us to hope that the United States may de¬ 
velop a foreign policy which will grow out of the understanding 
which comes from the fact that those who have come to us, with 
all the racial and religious hatreds which have been carefully 
nurtured in support of a selfish nationalism at home, have lived 
together in the United States on the same street, in the same 
tenement, finding the appeal of a common interest greater than 
the appeal of centuries of bitterness? 

Americanism of the Future 

Here are all shades of opinion—the reactionary Russian who 
finds himself in agreement with the reactionary American who 
fears the development of democracy; here is, too, the Russian 
who is ready to suffer again Siberian imprisonment if it would 
promote the cause of liberalism in Russia. This is the Russian 
w r ho realizes that recognition of the rights of the Pole, the Jew, 
the Finn, the Lithuanian, and the Ruthenian is necessary if the 
Russian himself is to be really free. Here are Bohemians liberal 
and reactionary, Catholic and Freethinker, agreeing in their 
desire for an autonomous Bohemia; here are Poles of all parties 
united in support of “free Poland.” 

And finally, here, too, are the Americans of many generations 
whose neighbors, friends, and business associates come from all 
these groups and who have also been a part of that American 
internationalism which is founded not on diplomacy or force 
but is the result of the understanding which has come^ith the 
necessity of living and working together. 

“Americanism” is much more a matter of the future than of 
the past. It is to be hoped that we can have the courage to be 
unlike Europe in both our nationalism and our internationalism 
and the imagination to use the possibilities which are ours be¬ 
cause we are of many races and, by the closest of human ties, 
are related to all the world. 

Survey. 36:478-80. Ap. 5> 'i6. 


54 


AMERICANISM 


THE OLD STOCK AND THE NEW 

A good deal is being said about the loss of influence in politics, 
morals, and manners of Americans of the “old stock”—the men 
and women who have been long acclimated, so to speak, in the air 
of the New World and who have had the largest opportunities 
of education under popular institutions. Richard Grant White 
defined an American as one whose ancestors had come to this 
country before the Revolution. The men and women who lived 
together through the vicissitudes and anxieties, and bore the 
sacrifices, of that long and exhausting struggle shared a unify¬ 
ing experience and became an independent people; but they did 
not become a nation. 

They had many fine traits of personal and political character; 
they honored religion, supported education, and developed a spirit 
of sturdy self-reliance. The more fortunate among them in 
point of ease of condition and cultivation were men and women 
of dignity and refinement of taste. They had a sound sense of 
form in architecture, as many old Colonial houses and churches 
show. Their colleges were schools of culture rather than of voca¬ 
tional efficiency, and their libraries were full of standard books. 
Their music was narrow in range, but it was free from vulgarity 

The “old stock” was largely descendent of the English, French 
and Dutch—races of active intelligence and energy of will. The 
early immigrants to the New World were largely, though by no 
means entirely, of the various Protestant faiths. Love of liberty 
was in their blood, and, as time went on and the habit of free 
action became fixed, they defined, first in idea and later in action, 
an ideal of freedom which has become the fundamental faith of 
the American people. They gave the Colonies leaders in the 
great debate which preceded the Revolution; they developed gen¬ 
erals of high ability, who were also men of noble disinterested¬ 
ness of nature and successfully led the amateur Colonial fighters 
against professional soldiers trained in Europe. 

In the critical years that followed the war they held the coun¬ 
try back from anarchy and to the difficult task of framing a 
Constitution for the new and inexperienced Nation they sent a 
large group of highly educated and able men. For many years 
public affairs were largely in their hands, and they developed 
political leaders of a high order of sagacity. 


# 


AMERICANISM 


55 


The “old stock” gave the Nation its moral and political ideals 
and met the crisis of the Civil War with a courage and patriot¬ 
ism which showed that it was not only sound at heart, but had 
not lost the inspiration of faith nor the ability to deal strongly 
with difficult and perilous conditions. 

That war created a nation, and the war which liberated Cuba 
made Americans conscious that they had become a nation with 
the responsibilities of a nation in the world. It is as idle to talk 
of maintaining the old policy of seclusion as to talk of bringing 
back the old practice of cutthroat competition; both are out¬ 
grown. The National life has broadened and deepened, and a 
nobler idea of the place and function of a nation in the modern 
world is defining itself. 

With this widening of ideas and interests there has come 
another group of men and women from the Old World who are 
rapidly creating a “new stock,” and many thoughtful Americans 
are asking whether in making the house so free to all who want 
to share its protection we are not endangering the ideals of the 
family and jeopardizing the spirit and faith which are the most 
precious possessions bequeathed by the men and women of the 
“old stock.” It is certainly true that the gates have not been 
properly guarded against crime and disease; though, The Out¬ 
look holds, the selective process ought to be made in Europe 
rather than in New York. It is also true that the absence of in¬ 
telligent methods of distribution has led to the practical segrega¬ 
tion of great numbers of new comers into localities which are 
almost as definite in boundary as the old pales in mediaeval cities. 
With a lack of foresight which has been criminal in its stupidity 
we have brought in small armies of men and women ignorant of 
our language, laws, and habits, planted them in isolated colonies, 
done little or nothing to show them how to be Americans, left 
them to the leadership of agitators, and then, when they have 
become turbulent and lawless, have accused them of violating 
the hospitality of the Nation. As a matter of fact, hospitality 
has never been offered them. They have been brought over in 
ship loads, carted like freight to distant points, and dumped in a 
mass like usable human refuse. They have been worked; they 
have not been Americanized. 

Editorial. Outlook. 107:334-5. Je 13, ’14. 


56 


AMERICANISM 


THE FAITH THAT IS IN US 

Winthrop Talbot 

Americanism is the voluntary choosing of American ideals, 
the adoption of principles for which America stands. And what 
aye they? Freedom to worship God? Life, liberty, and the pur¬ 
suit of happiness? Government through representation of the 
people, by the people, and for the people? Equal suffrage and 
universal obligation to public service? 

These, but also something still more basic to our obligations 
and privileges as American citizens. Namely, the right of the 
individual to know. America stands for universal untrammelled 
right and opportunity to share in thought. Moreover American 
democracy possesses a unique mechanism for thought sharing. 

Let us hark back to the settling time of this country. The 
Pilgrims landed on a rockbound coast in search of opportunity 
to worship God in their own sectarian fashion, yet banished from 
their midst those who presumed to differ in religious tenets. 

In 1620 Americanism was liberty to specialize in intolerance. 
There was little thought of toleration, freedom, union, democracy 
in the Americanism of the Pilgrim Fathers. Nor were the Puri¬ 
tans dissimilar. But stern and unbending sectaries, as they were, 
they builded better than they knew when they established in 
Boston in 1635 the first free public Latin school, the beginning of 
the American public school system. Intended to train youth for 
the ministry, this school steadily expanded to larger public ser¬ 
vice and became the exemplar, as it was the prototype, of our free 
public schools of today. The bigoted, intolerant, greatminded, 
bravehearted hierocratic colonists devised and set into operation 
an effective mechanism by which alone democracy could be 
evolved. The mechanism of the free public grammar school was 
their contribution to thought extension. Its establishment led 
directly to the next step in Americanization, obligatory free pub¬ 
lic schooling, which in turn made thought sharing general and 
inevitable. 

Out from the search for liberty to worship God in one narrow 
fashion there evolved thru wider schooling increasing religious 
toleration. From greater toleration in religious belief came the 
demand for political liberty, and especially for representation of 
the individual in government. The rebellious cry of the Amer- 


AMERICANISM 


57 


ican people was voiced by Patrick Henry in his demand “Give 
me Liberty or give me Death.” 

American in 1776 meant government by representation of all 
who possessed the suffrage, but the bond-servant, the slave, and 
women had no vote and two thirds of all the people were unable 
to read and write. It was in fact an oligarchy or government 
of the many by the few. 

As the country grew, desire for schooling grew, academies 
were planted everywhere, colleges were founded, interest in 
books increased, and there arose the conception of the free public 
library—a direct result of needs created by the demands of free 
public schooling. 

The free public school, reinforced by the free public library, 
became a united mechanism for universal extension and sharing 
of thought. Freedom of thought thus shared and opportunity 
thus opened to all to share thought implanted a fixed determina¬ 
tion to cut out of the body politic institutions like slavery, which 
stifled freedom of thought and fostered classes in society such as 
never could become sharers in thought or partakers in govern¬ 
ment. 

In 1861 Americanism became a belief, an intense desire, not 
only for liberty and freedom, but for union and a more liberal 
franchise. It was seen that opportunity for individual freedom 
demanded organization and political union. As a means for pro¬ 
viding this organization, the daily press in the hands of Horace 
Greeley and the hero journalists of his time became a living 
entity, a strong ally of tke public school and the public library in 
promoting democracy. Without this triad mechanism of the 
school, the library, and the press, opportunity for individual de¬ 
velopment, social, industrial, and political, could not have become 
general. 

We are apt to think of the democracy of Jefferson’s time as 
being representative of that of our time also, but we do not rea¬ 
lize that in his day all the slave population and nearly one-half 
of the white population of America were unable to read and 
write. Such men as the father of Lincoln were cut off by illiter¬ 
acy from participation in general thought of their time. Jeffer¬ 
son’s democracy was the democracy of the Aristotelian philoso¬ 
phy and the slave-holding democracies of Greece and Rome, 
democracy restricted by wide-spread illiteracy, and consequently 
democracy only of the few who were able to share thought. 

The Americanism of Tom Paine was opportunity to think and 


58 


AMERICANISM 


act. The Americanism of Hamilton was opportunity for personal 
privilege. The Americanism of Jefferson was opportunity for 
party action. The Americanism of Lincoln was opportunity of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. Today through in¬ 
ternational extension of the idea of the free public school, the 
free public library, and the free press, the Americanism of Wil¬ 
son and the American people comes to mean opportunity for 

HUMANITY TO THINK AND GROW TOGETHER IN COMMUNISM OF EF¬ 
FORT BY EACH IN THE SERVICE OF ALL. 

But Americans are not all humanists. We still retain among 
us the sectarian, the libertarian, the party worshipper, the na¬ 
tionalist, all of whom represent distinct stages in the growth of 
Americanism. Each defines Americanism to himself in terms 
peculiar to the stage which he historically represents. It is es¬ 
sential for us in this war against autocracy to picture clearly 
these many sided aspects of Americanism, these varied stages in 
growth of social, political, industrial, religious, and scientific 
freedom in thought sharing. 

We may affirm truly that freedom of opportunity in the shar¬ 
ing of thought is the chief characteristic of Americanism, but 
we must face the wide diversity in Americanism occasioned not 
only by historic growth, but through geographic and climatic 
environment. The Bostonian has one conception of American¬ 
ism, the New Yorker another, the Washingtonian and the Chi¬ 
cagoan something quite different, and the Texan conception again 
is not that of the Californian. 

Becoming Americanized means getting to be like Americans, 
and thus we gain infinite variety of meaning to the word, as well 
as an infinitude of charm, and naturally a fine chance for dogma¬ 
tism and debate. If all this is true, however, we may regard as 
pseudo-Americanization the illjudged attempts of some well- 
meaning American-born enthusiasts to fit the alien to a Proc¬ 
rustean bed of his own stage of Americanism. Are there not 
many of us who talk much of Americanization, who although of 
American birth and ancestry permit ourselves to be egoistic in¬ 
tolerant, domineering, and autocratic in our conception of Amer¬ 
icanism, disdainful of those treasures of heritage which the 
foreign born continually bring to our shores in rich abundance, 
and ready to deride these new gifts as “not American” because 
they happen to be new to us? 

It has been said that America is a melting pot. How crude 


AMERICANISM 


59 


the simile, although dramatic, and how untrue, moreover how 
opposed to biologic fact. Rather is America a glorious garden 
where racial stocks of hardy type take root, and in richer soil by 
cross fertilization and intensive cultivation develop large variety 
and wonderful fruitage. Does it not prophesy well for the future 
too, that foreign human plants and seeds brought to this great 
Garden of the West generally do take root here, to bloom con¬ 
tinually and so to add their mite and might to the common weal? 
Somehow or other, by the process of Americanization, by suc¬ 
cessful modification and by adaptation to new conditions, even 
human prickly pears seem to lose their thorns, and poisonous 
human varieties generally become harmless. 

What is the magic wand that effects this transmutation? Some 
deem it to be the political Constitution of our country, but Eng¬ 
land’s constitution is as liberal as ours. Some would say, re¬ 
ligious toleration, but China is religiously tolerant. Some might 
think it the great natural resources of a new country, but Russian 
Siberia offers more than America. Perhaps the suffragist be¬ 
lieves it is because American women have here a greater chance 
and greater rights, but little Finland is our superior in this re¬ 
gard. 

No, we may guess, and guess again, but all our guesses will 
be in vain until we realize that America is truly the land of the 
free for the reason that in America, and in America alone, is 
established a general mechanism and system whereby everyone 
is proferred widest opportunity to share the thought of all. 

It was in America where the free public school originated for 
the common benefit, where the free public library had its birth, 
where the linotype and rotary press were invented to make low 
cost printing possible, and so to render the news print page a 
popular necessity. 

America is the only land where free obligatory public school¬ 
ing affords equal opportunity to all to progress in uninterrupted 
mental expansion from kindergarten, through gradeschool, high 
school, and college to the technical and professional school at 
public expense. In other lands this opportunity is afforded to 
some, but in no other land is it given so generally as a birthright 
to every child. 

America is the only land where the free public library, that 
greatest university of all the people, no longer remains a mere 
store-house of knowledge or reservoir of learning, but rather is 
a powerful dynamo equipped to supply mental power in small or 


6o 


AMERICANISM 


large quantities as desired. Its trunk wires are rapidly being ex¬ 
tended to energize every occupation and interest of the com¬ 
munity. Most of us are unaware of or indifferent to this exten¬ 
sion of the free public library for like other natural growth 
processes it is a quiet growth, so that unless we have lived in 
foreign lands, we cannot realize that the possession of the public 
library in its present form is the privilege of America alone 
among all the nations of the world. 

It is because the free public school, the free public library, 
and the free press are American dynamos, that we gain power 
more and more to share thought, and by so doing give promise 
of true democracy. For is not democracy based upon ability and 
opportunity to understand one another and so to grip each others 
aims, purposes and meanings? As power of mutual comprehen¬ 
sion is based upon the printed word, does not ability of all to 
read provide the basis of democracy? In Russia, for instance, 
in Mexico, and in other lands where the literate form the small 
minority of the population, democracy is a plant of tender 
growth, the vitality of which must depend mainly upon extension 
of schooling. Schooling is the mechanism of thought sharing. 
Democracy must possess such mechanism for sharing thought, 
for democracy must be able to think in common terms. 

The spoken word of course is another potent means of shar¬ 
ing thought and one reason why Americanism is fraught with 
power is because no country has so many millions who speak the 
same language. We rightly lay stress on teaching English to 
foreigners in order that diversity of tongues may not shatter our 
Babel tower, but since the printed word is more potent than the 
spoken word because it reaches further and conveys richer mean¬ 
ings, so our Americanization depends for its full worth upon 
wholly removing the hindrance and stigma of foreign illiteracy 
as well as that of the native born. When each person in the 
United States, barring only the mentally defective, is enabled 
through the force of an aroused public opinion and higher stand- 
dards of industrial management to be enabled to read and write, 
then for the first time may we talk rightfully and purposefully 
of complete Americanization. In the Empire State alone there 
are today a half million illiterate whites, in Pennsylvania, three 
hundred thousand. The manufacturing States of the North may 
be termed the Black Belt of the North for in their population 
are two million adults who cannot read or write. 


AMERICANISM 


61 


Among a people who steadily extend their general mechanism 
for sharing thought, nothing can impede thought sharing. Clear 
thinking on this matter is essential to right planning, if ever there 
is to be a just and lasting peace. For instance, it has been said 
and properly that a nation’s force depends upon its health and 
freedom from disease, but what advocate of public health educa¬ 
tion has not found his best efforts balked through mere inability 
to read simple health notices and sanitary instructions? In in¬ 
dustry what manager has not failed in attaining his largest aims 
because of friction, misunderstanding, or strife engendered 
through inability of illiterate workers to comprehend a simple 
work direction or even a danger signal. What political boss has 
failed to find advantage for himself at public cost by exploiting 
the votes of an illiterate electorate? Is it not among the densely 
unschooled that exploitation of every sort exists? Is it not these 
who suffer chiefly the evils resulting from poverty, bad housing, 
contaminated food, congestion, infant mortality, child labor, 
alcoholism, and crime, and who will say that any of these evils 
we are glad to term American? We would not indeed think of 
the crowded slums and their attendant evils as typically American 
but rather of the decent individual home? This suffering is not 
confined to the illiterate but extends reflexly to the literate 
themselves. It is not then possible for all Americans to strengthen 
the three basic forces of true Americanism, the free obligatory, 
public school, the free public library, and the free press, in giving 
ability and opportunity to read, write and speak a common lan¬ 
guage, and thus to enable thought to be shared in common? 

The deepening current of American life bids fair to sweep as 
a mighty flood throughout the world. Study of our immigration 
to foreign countries as contrasted with immigration to this coun¬ 
try, reveals millions of sturdy immigrants, who have returned to 
their homes from America. Through their industry and econ¬ 
omies, they have been enabled to send a quickening stream of 
material wealth back to their home countries, but of immensely 
greater import to the democracy of the world has been the good 
news, the gospel of opportunity for all to know, which having 
been learned in America, they have sent or brought to their home 
countries. Moreover it is in America that they have discovered 
the potent mechanism for uprooting autocracy and thereby elim¬ 
inating serfdom, and as they have gone back by hundreds of 
thousands to the lands of their birth in the Orient, the Occident 


62 


AMERICANISM 


and the Antipodes, they have carried with them everywhere the 
American idea of the free public school, the free public library, 
and the American newspaper, and thus while they may have re¬ 
tained their racial traits, their racial language, and their racial 
customs, nevertheless, by means of this mechanism, they them¬ 
selves have become Americanized, and everywhere as earnest 
disciples are promoting true Americanism by extending these 
means of sharing thought. In this sense our emigrants from 
America have become the revolutionists of Russian and the ed¬ 
ucators of Japan and China. They have awakened all lands to 
greater conceptions of liberty and wider humanism, and now are 
extending through the war a helping hand to the victims of autoc¬ 
racy and privilege. 

To end Slavery of the mind, to promote mutual understand¬ 
ing in the service of each for all and all for each is our gospel 
of Americanism, the Faith that is in us. 

Printed, in part, in Forum, November, 19x7. 


BROTHERHOOD IN AMERICA 

Stephen S. Wise 

IMMIGRANT LEADER, RABBI, AMERICAN 

Remember that in this land of ours all the races, all the 
peoples, all the faiths of the world, are being brought together 
and are being fused into one great and indivisible whole, as if to 
prove that, if men will but come near enough together to know 
one another, whatever their nationality, their race, their religion, 
hatred and ill-will and prejudice and all uncharitableness are 
sure to pass away. Herein let America pioneer. Our country 
seems destined in the Providence of God to be the meeting 
place of all the peoples, to be the world’s experimental station in * 
brotherhood—all of us learning that other nations are not bar¬ 
barians, that other races are not inferior, that other faiths are 
not Godless. ffl 

From Address at Young People’s Meeting of National Arbitration and 
Peace Congress, New York, 1907. 


AMERICANISM 


63 


THE MEANING OF OUR FLAG 

John B. Torbert 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

Expressive symbolism was the object aimed at by the early 
patriots in the various flags under which Americans fought, and 
it was not until some time after the adoption by Congress of a 
uniform standard for the armies and navies of the colonies that 
they entirely gave place to the national emblem. The Pine-tree 
flag, the Rattlesnake flag, the Liberty or Death flag, the Crescent 
flag are examples of the most prominent among the great many 
and diverse flags that were used. 

There were thirteen separate colonies along the Atlantic sea¬ 
board of North America, each differing materially in its laws 
and political organization from all the others. There never has 
been a time when our population has not been complex. The 
American people as a distinctive nationality was a composite 
fabric, whose warp was of English origin, but whose woof came 
from every European country. Only the combination of peoples, 
climate, productive waters, and fertile soil, found here in com¬ 
bination, could produce the hardy type of American genius. The 
virtuous Huguenot, the thrifty Swede, the frugal Scotchman, the 
industrious German, and the generous but turbulent Irishman, 
were woven into a nation by the pertinacity and dominant 
strength of the English character. 

Using three flags to represent three stages in the development 
of our national emblem we will begin with the red ensign as the 
one universally used by the English merchant vessels of that day. 
It was the flag that played a most important part in the develop¬ 
ment of our National flag, forming, as it does, the basis for the 
Stars and Stripes. 

On this hitherto red ensign were placed six stripes that are 
significant from a historic point of view* representing the six 
European countries from which America had been chiefly 
peopled, whose descendants were now fighting, shoulder to 
shoulder, as one people in recognition of the principle that “The 
cause of Boston is the cause of us all.” It was known as “The 
Grand Union Flag” from the union under its folds of so many 

* History of the U. S., Alexander H. Stephens, 1881, p. 198; Manu¬ 
scripts in Library of Congress; History of the Great Seal of U. S. 


64 


AMERICANISM 


different stocks of people in a common cause against injustice 
and oppression. 

In placing these six white stripes on the flag seven spaces of 
the original red were of course left which gave the whole num¬ 
ber of bars or stripes as representing also the thirteen colonies 
in armed resistance to the tyranny and oppression of Great 
Britain. The Union Jack, the crosses of St. George and St. 
Andrew were retained in the upper corner to signify the yet 
recognized sovereignty of England. This flag was raised for the 
first time over the camp at Cambridge on January i or 2, 1776, 
when Washington first took command of our combined armies. 

Thus a change was made on the British commercial red en¬ 
sign as a base and the first step was taken towards that distinc¬ 
tive American flag as we know it to-day, the most beautiful stan¬ 
dard that was ever thrown to the breeze. 

In stating the causes for which they took up arms* Congress 
declared that they had “no wish to separate from the mother 
country, but only to maintain their charter rights,” and “We 
have not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from 
Great Britain and establishing independent States. We fight not 
for glory nor for conquest. . . . Honor, justice and humanity 
forbid us tamely to surrender the freedom which we received 
from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity 
have a right to receive from us. In our native land, and in 
defense of the freedom which is our birthright, and which we 
have ever enjoyed till the late violation of it, for the protection 
of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our 
forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we 
have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities 
shall cease on the part of the aggressor, and all danger of their 
being renewed shall be removed, and not before.” 

In thus stating the grievances that had forced them to take up 
arms, the sovereignty of Great Britain was still recognized. 
This together with the great forbearance on the part of our fore¬ 
fathers is one of the great lessons that is graphically illustrated 
in coming to a complete understanding of our flag. 

The arbitrary disposition of Great Britain in refusing to yield 
to the just claims of the colonies, together with the manner in 
which the remonstrances of the colonies were received and 
treated by the King and Parliament, extinguished all hopes that 

* Journal of Continental Congress, Ford, Vol. 2, p. 155. 


AMERICANISM 


65 


had been previously entertained in America of- an ultimate recon¬ 
ciliation with the mother country. The feeling had now become 
general for independence, as shown in General Washington’s 
letter of May, 1776. He wrote from the headquarters of the 
army then at New York. 

“A reconciliation with Great Britain is impossible. . . . 
When I took command of the army I abhorred the idea of inde¬ 
pendence ; but I am now fully satisfied that nothing else will 
save us.” 

In recognition of this now almost universal feeling the elim¬ 
ination of the Union Jack from the flag became necessary and 
was happily solved by the substitution of thirteen five-pointed 
stars in a blue field. This substitution also is full of meaning in 
that each star is equal in magnitude with every other star and 
represented each State on a parity with every other State. The 
number of points to the stars is also significant and the selection 
of the five-pointed star was not due to any haphazard or snap 
judgment but was the result of careful thought wisely con¬ 
cluded. 

As time passed the flag was changed in a mistaken attempt to 
have it represent not the origin but the development of the coun¬ 
try from time to time. In the changes it underwent it not only 
lost its beauty as an emblem but also its historic symbolism. 
Fortunately however, through the patriotic devotion and zeal of 
a gallant naval hero, Captain Samuel Chester Reed, who loved 
his country and his flag, Congress was apprized of its error and 
the mistakes were corrected. In the corrective legislation on the 
subject the historic symbolism was preserved while at the same 
time provision was made for the representation of future 
growth without in any way disfiguring or distorting what it had 
always stood for. 

Through a mere coincidence the stripes took on a double 
significance. The six white stripes on the red field gave a total 
number of thirteen red and white which now represent not only 
the European origin of the colonies but the number of colonies 
that rebelled under oppression and achieved their independence 
from Great Britain after a long and bloody struggle. 

The colors are in themselves significant coming in their defini¬ 
tion to us from very ancient times when red was used to dis¬ 
tinguish hardiness and valor; white stood for purity and 
innocence and blue signified vigilance, perseverance and justice. 


66 


AMERICANISM 


A correct knowledge of “The Meaning of Our Flag” will re¬ 
veal why we are a Nation of patriots of one country and one 
flag indivisible; it absolutely precludes any hyphenated Ameri¬ 
canism. Any division of allegiance is impossible and every 
American is an American from the ground up. 

The Flag is wonderful in origin, interesting in meaning and 
equally beautiful in design, in symmetry, and in sentiment. 

The War of the American Revolution established our flag. 
The War of 1812 maintained and strengthened its prestige among 
the nations of the earth. The War between the States preserved 
it in its integrity and the War with Spain planted it in a remote 
portion of the earth as a beacon light of liberty and enlighten¬ 
ment to all the peoples of the earth. 

It is an emblem of living acts and constant aspirations, in 
unison with whose waving beauty the national heart throbs and 
pulsates in defense of its honor and in the spread of its protect¬ 
ing influence throughout the world. 

To relate the story of the origin of our flag, its development 
and meaning, is to unfold its exalted teachings and present the 
whole subject in its supreme beauty. 

Its meaning necessarily has its beginning in the graphic sym¬ 
bolism of the early colonial flags and it is only through the study 
of the smallest details of the unfolding and development from 
stage to stage that anything like a true picture of the signifi¬ 
cance and meaning of its component parts can be arrived at. 

The ideas represented in the different symbols of our flag as 
eventually adopted were the result of growth, development and 
a most judicious exercise of careful selection not only with a 
view to its aesthetic beauty but for the historic, geographic, and 
symbolic truth. 

It was evolved amid the smoke and excitement of the battle 
field and was designed with a view of the past, the present, and 
the future, and in itself embodies the history and geographic 
origin of the new nation, so harmonized that it is only with strict 
attention to the little details that its true meaning can be dis¬ 
cerned. 

A knowledge of the meaning of the different symbols of the 
flag not only has interest but is of very great importance in 
teaching the dominating ability and strength derived from the 
cosmopolitan character of American citizenship and the conse¬ 
quent obligations for the protection and uplifting of all the 


AMERICANISM 


67 


peoples of the earth. Nations, creeds and colors, diverse and 
conglomerate streams of blood have flowed steadily to our 
shores; they step in and are lost forever, fused into one dis¬ 
tinguished mass called the American people. 

The stars represented, at the time of the adoption of the flag, 
the new constellation of thirteen States along the Atlantic sea¬ 
board of North America that had united in armed resistance to 
injustice and oppression imposed upon them by Great Britain. 
As new States have been admitted into the Union a new star has 
taken its place in the constellation as the equal of every star 
other State. By concretion and subdivision of territory into 
soverigns States, that constellation has been increased to forty- 
eight stars in a blue field. 

The white stripes, originally represented the six States of 
Europe from which the Colonies had been chiefly peopled, laid 
down on the commercial red ensign of Great Britain showed the 
welding of the conglomerate of transported European nationali¬ 
ties into a compact and united American republic. 

It is a mistake to think that through the rupture between 
Great Britain and her North American colonies, which finally re¬ 
sulted in the independence of the latter, there was a final and 
complete parting from the flags of the parent country. On the 
contrary, the old flag was retained as a base with modifications 
that so enhanced its beauty and gave to it such an additional 
value as a symbol of liberal free government that the old basal 
flag is obscured and lost in the beauty of the new creation. 

The geography and jurisprudence of the civilized world 
centers in its makeup. The ideas for which it stands, the bless¬ 
ings which it typifies, the great works wrought under its in¬ 
spiration constitute the grandest chapter in the history of 
mankind and a climax in the history of the world. 

Our flag was conceived in war but born of a patriotism that 
has since achieved its greatest victories as triumphs of peace. 
Honorable peace was the first and only desire of the early patri¬ 
ots, but when their just demands for redress, were treated with 
scorn by the monarch to whom they were addressed, a new con¬ 
stellation made its appearance among the nations of the earth, in 
our flag. The drum and fife, under its folds, sounded the death 
knell of tyranny among the nations. Since the adoption of our 
flag more than half of the nations of the earth have become re- 


68 


AMERICANISM 


publics and every government has given increased liberty and 
representation to its people. 

The Revolutionary War gave birth to this mighty nation and 
it has grown and waxed strong in the succeeding years of its 
development until to-day its flag floats over a vast territory of 
the choicest portion of the American Continent, extending from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and over all productive tem¬ 
peratures from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It has 
also planted that flag in the uttermost parts of the earth as a 
beacon light of progress and humanity. 

As honorable peace was the first consideration in the concep¬ 
tion of our flag, so has it always been the fervent desire of our 
people, and it is a fact to be proud of that wherever our flag has 
gone as the emblem of sovereignty it has proved a benefaction to 
mankind. 

The “Stars and Stripes” is magnificently American in its 
significance and meaning and as a symbolic emblem of national 
existence and development we could have nothing else so beauti¬ 
ful and inspiring and at the same time so full of meaning, to 
old and young alike whether native or naturalized, as our much 
loved American Flag. 

Address to the Department of the Interior June 1915. 


“THE AMERICAN FLAG” (1861) 

Henry Ward Beecher 

PREACHER, AUTHOR, ORATOR, AMERICAN LOYALIST 

THIS nation has a banner, too; and until recently wherever 
it streamed abroad men saw day-break bursting on their eyes. 
For until lately the American flag has been a symbol of Liberty, 
and men rejoiced in it. Not another flag on the globe had such 
an errand, or went forth upon the sea carrying everywhere, the 
world around, such hope to the captive, and such glorious tidings. 
The stars upon it were to the pining nations like the bright 
morning stars of God, and the stripes upon it were beams of 
morning light. As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while 
it grows light, and then as the sun advances that light breaks 
into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and 
intense white striving together, and ribbing the horizon with bars 


AMERICANISM 


69 


effulgent, so, on the American flag, stars and beams of many- 
colored light shine out together. And wherever this flag comes, 
and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry no ramping 
lion, and no fierce eagle; no embattled castles, or insignia of 
imperial authority; they see the symbols of light. It is the ban¬ 
ner of Dawn. It means Liberty ; and the galley slave, the poor, 
oppressed conscript, the trodden-down creature of foreign 
despotism, sees in the American flag that very promise and pre¬ 
diction of God—“The people which sat in darkness saw a great 
light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death 
light is sprung up.” 

“Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may 
be displayed ” 

And displayed it shall be. Advanced full against the morning 
light, and borne with the growing and the glowing day, it shall 
take the last ruddy beams of the night, and from the Atlantic 
wave, clear across with eagle flight to the Pacific, that banner 
shall float, meaning all the liberty which it has ever meant! 
From the North, where snows and mountain ice stand solitary, 
clear to the glowing tropics and the Gulf, that banner that has 
hitherto waved shall wave and wave forever—every star, every 
band, every thread and fold significant of Liberty! 

And now God speaks by the voice of his providence, saying, 
“Lift again that banner! Advance it full and high!” To your 
hand, and to yours, God and your country commit that imperish¬ 
able trust. You go forth self-called, or rather called by the 
trust of your countrymen and by the Spirit of your God, to take 
that trailing banner out of the dust and out of the mire, and lift 
it again where God’s rains can cleanse it, and where God’s free 
air can cause it to unfold and stream as it has always floated 
before the wind. God bless the men that go forth to save from 
disgrace the American flag! 

Accept it, then, in all its fulness of meaning. It is not a 
painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitu¬ 
tion. It is the government. It is the free people that stand in 
the government on the Constitution. Forget not what it means ; 
and for the sake of its ideas, rather than its mere emblazonry, 
be true to your country’s flag. By your hands lift it; but let 
your lifting it be no holiday display. It must be advanced 
“because of the truth” 

From Freedom and War, Boston. 1863. 






PART II 

ESSENTIALS OF AMERICANIZATION 






















AMERICANIZATION 


Winthrop Talbot 

In the strife of new forms of government with old, in the 
clash of democracy with autocracy, the great new constructive 
force is Americanization—extension of American ideas without 
racial or geographic limit—partaking with all peoples at home 
and abroad in essential Americanism. 

Americanization is the process of sharing in and promoting 
the ideals, aims, activities, and practice of basic American gov¬ 
ernmental principles, American freedom of thought, American 
schooling and language, and the best manners, habits, and cus¬ 
toms, of America. 

Americanization advocates the rights claimed in our political 
constitution, free public schooling which is obligatory and uni¬ 
versal, the free public library, and the free press. It implies a 
common language for Americans and a rich vocabulary of 
thought exchange. 

Americanization is broad in scope for it includes the pleasures 
and relaxations of recreation and wholesome fun as much as 
the pains and concentrations of industry. American games and 
sports are as truly typical as are American modes of conducting 
business, manufacture, and scientific procedure. So universal is 
the scope of Americanization and so requisite is it becoming to 
civilization that our conception of its meaning should be equally 
broad. We should not be bound by preconceived notions de¬ 
rived soley from limited personal experiences and narrow indi¬ 
vidual prejudice. Americanization is based upon socialized 
thinking. The outgoing American spirit has already expressed 
itself in a freer Russia, it is evidenced by increasing representa¬ 
tion in government among widely separated peoples, and in grow¬ 
ing recognition of the world right to share thought, experience, 
and aspiration. 

Most important of all, Americanization always implies obli¬ 
gation; free choice determines its acceptance, and its extension 
must come through avenues of intelligent comprehension 
rather than through physical or governmental domination. 


74 


AMERICANIZATION 


Only as we broaden our own conception of Americanization may 
we become fully aware of its relations to world progress, and 
appreciate the immensity of the field open to its forces. 

Problems of Americanisation 

The problems of Americanization usually are conceived as 
questions of assimilation of the European alien, and this book 
devotes space proportionately to the technic of Americanization 
in this field. But it should be borne in mind that America of to 
day has taken over also the assimilation of the Negro, the Indian» 
the Creole, the Filipino, the Porto Rican, the natives of 
Alaska, of Haiti, of San Domingo, of the Virgin Islands, and of 
Hawaii, as well as large numbers of Mexican peons, and a few 
hundred thousand Chinese, Nipponese and other Asiatic immi¬ 
grants. It is well to remind ourselves that we have not yet really 
set ourselves to work in earnest at Americanizing some of our 
native-born, for example the isolated mountain whites of Ken¬ 
tucky and West Virginia, the dwellers in the flatlands of the 
Mississippi Valley, the decadents and defectives of the New 
England Hinterland, the absentee director in industry, and the 
insulated devotee to wealth and class. 

These comprise some of our home problems in Americaniza¬ 
tion. Steadily year by year, and decade by decade, we find our¬ 
selves as a people becoming gradually welded into a greater 
unity American ideals while varied in the extreme no longer are 
in open and angry conflict as in the days of the Civil War, and 
we are becoming likeminded in our aims and purposes as a peo¬ 
ple. The Civil War united us; the World War is unifying us. 

Forces of Americanisation 

When we enumerate the forces of Americanization we per¬ 
ceive that they are varied in kind and inclusive in type. They 
comprise first those agencies which promote ability to share 
thought—namely the free public school, the free library, the free 
press. Of these agencies the free public school is of prime im¬ 
portance. 

Physical environment and the presence and influence of 
American life itself are the next most effective agents of Amer¬ 
icanization, because the habits of mankind are formed largely 
through imitation. Thus we are led to a consideration of the 


AMERICANIZATION 


75 


detailed aspects of American life, our means of rapid, cheap, 
and extensive transportation through wide territories by means 
of railway and steamer travel, the trolley car, automobile, ferry, 
and despised but useful “Jitney.” Every increase in mobility 
induces a more complete Americanism. 

Americanization is fostered not only by extension of thought 
through travel but by general use of conveniences for communi¬ 
cation of ideas such as the telephone, telegraph, and postal 
facilities in contrast with their limited availability and use in 
other lands. 

Societies, fraternities, and orders play a large role in Ameri¬ 
canization, for the American is primarily and preeminently a 
“joiner.” 

American games and sports, “movies,” and vaudevilles should 
be included among the forces of Americanization. 

The improved conditions which mark modern American em¬ 
ployment and extension of labor organization do much to pro¬ 
mote Americanization. 

Churches, Sunday schools, and charitable organizations, are 
also important. 

Finally the ballot box and all that this implies “in posse*' if 
not “in esse” signifies more than all other agents save the public 
school. Manhood and womanhood suffrage form in fact the 
aegis of Americanism; however ineffective through complexity, 
shadowed by ignorance and stupidity, or bound by selfishness 
and cupidity, the power of the ballot becomes ever stronger as 
we learn to use it. 

Our political constitution affords the means for ultimate 
freedom in the play of the forces of Americanization, for our 
American Constitution deliberately renounces the power to legis¬ 
late concerning specified rights. No government other than that 
of the United States, has ever admitted that there exist human 
rights which are unalienable. 

Thus no other form of government stands fully for the rights 
of humanity. If we suffer human rights to be invaded, it is ouf 
own fault, not the fault of our form of government, and our 
fault may be rectified only by cultivating a deeper intelligence 
among all our people. May it be said that we do stand fully for 
human rights when we continue to permit six million of our 
adults to remain unable to read and write, and so to invite that 
every exploitation and strife which Americanism seeks to end? 


76 


AMERICANIZATION 


AMERICA 

William James Dawson 

CLERGYMAN, ENGLISH IMMIGRANT, LECTURER, AUTHOR, POET 
****** 

From the Volga and the Tiber and the Seas, 

From the lands of long misrule thy children come, 

And thou standest like a Shepherd by the fold 
And numberest thy sheep as they draw home. 

From the ways of dearth and toil, 

From the hard penurious soil, 

Like school-freed children glad they seek thy knees, 

And find wise liberty in thy decrees. 

No more disconsolate, 

They grasp a larger fate; 

Shall they falter? Shall they find thy freedom sure? 
Yea: in truth they shall endure. 

From the sunset-lands they come, and from the East, 
From the Tagus, and the Danube, and the Rhine, 

From the waters ploughed by Norsemen in their pride, 
From the fiord and the factory, and the mine; 

Behold a miracle! 

Within thy crucible 

The cosmic flame that challenges the sun 
Transfuses million-varied lives to one! 

Nation born within a day, 

Shall it falter? Shall it cease? Shall it endure? 

O nation, young and gay, 

Yea: it standeth very sure. 

Where the workshop flings its plumes athwart the sky, 
Where the labouring engines groan as if in pain, 

Where the low tree-cradled cottage dots the hill, 

Where the lonely ranchman rides along the plain; 

Where the Mississippi flows, 

Where the Shasta lifts her snows, 

Day by day thy far-flung children praise thy name, 
Forgetful they of days of ancient shame, 

Of Emperors and Czars, 

Beneath thy flag of stars. 


AMERICANIZATION 


77 


Shall they falter? Shall they cease? Shall they endure? 
Yea: their faith is very sure. 

For a bitter night and day they shall be tried, 

They shall moan within the cruel hand of greed; 

But even when the wrong has wrought its worst 
Shall arise Redeemers answering to their need. 

From some backwood Bethlehem 
Their Christ shall come to them; 

Thro’ the roaring hells of Mammon, by the path 
Of mocking Calvaries, he shall pass on in his wrath, 

Till his hands have hewn the way 
To the daylight and the Day. 

Shall he falter in the strife? Shall he endure? 

Nay: his step is very sure. 

Where the school-house banner flaunts the morning breeze, 
Where the rough farm student strides amid the wheat, 

W here the voice of knowledge fills a thousand halls, 
Where the athletes in their mimic warfare meet; 

Where the master grasps the brand 
Of lightning in his hand, 

And the hidden Powers of Air to service bent 
Proclaim the issue of the long experiment, 

I behold the future race 
Arise in strength and grace; 

Shall they falter? Shall they fail? Shall they endure? 

Lo, the onward march is sure. 

****** 

America and other poems, pp. 14-19. New York. John Lane Company. 1914- 


78 


AMERICANIZATION 


THE MEANING OF CITIZENSHIP 

AN ADDRESS TO NEWLY NATURALIZED CITIZENS 
PHILADELPHIA, MAY 10 , I915 

Woodrow Wilson 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

This is the only country in the world which experiences 
constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the 
multiplication of their own native people. This country is con¬ 
stantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary 
association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward- 
looking women of other lands. And so by the gift of the 
free will of independent people it is being constantly renewed 
from generation to generation by the same process by which it 
was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to 
see to it that this great Nation, founded for the benefit of 
humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the 
world. 

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United 
States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless 
it be to God—certainly not of allegiance to those who temporar¬ 
ily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath 
of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to 
a great hope of the human race. You have said, “We are going 
to America not only to earn a living not only to seek the things 
which it was more difficult to obtain where we were born, but 
to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit—to let 
men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will 
cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is 
alien to them if they can but satisfy their quest for what their 
spirits crave; knowing that whatever the speech there is but one 
longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty 
and justice.” And while you bring all countries with you, you 
come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you— 
bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your 
shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave 
behind in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest 
that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of 
his origin. These things are very sacred and ought not to be 


AMERICANIZATION 


79 


put out of our hearts, but it is one thing to love the place where 
you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the 
place to which you go. You can not dedicate yourself to Amer¬ 
ica unless you become in every respect and with every purpose of 
your will thorough American's. You can not become thorough 
Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does 
not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belong¬ 
ing to a particular national group in America has not yet become 
an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon 
your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and 
Stripes. 

My urgent advice to you would be not only always to think 
first of America, but always also to think first of humanity. You 
do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous 
camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sym¬ 
pathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the 
man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of 
his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for 
America was created to unite mankind by those passions which 
lift and not by the passions which separate and debase. We 
came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our an¬ 
cestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things 
than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and 
to make sure of the things that unite. It was but an historical 
accident no doubt that this great country was called the “United 
States”; yet I am very thankful that it has that word “United” 
in its title, and the man who seeks to divide man from man, 
group from group, interest from interest in this great Union is 
striking at its very heart. 

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of 
those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Gov¬ 
ernment, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckon¬ 
ing finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind 
of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt 
you have been disappointed in some of us. Some of us are very 
disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the 
United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose 
as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you 
found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the 
complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived before¬ 
hand. But remember this: If we had grown at all poor in the 


8o 


AMERICANIZATION 


ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out 
to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for 
the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have for¬ 
gotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in 
your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that 
I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten 
what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will re¬ 
mind me. I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of 
what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with 
you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any 
high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you 
brought dreams with you, America is more likely to realize 
dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came 
expecting us to be better than we are. 

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans 
must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of 
every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even 
the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know 
how it is with a family. A family gets centered on itself if it is 
not careful and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in its 
own members. So a nation that is not constantly renewed out 
of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a 
family; whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on 
all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations 
of mankind. The example of America must be a special ex¬ 
ample. The example of America must be the example not merely 
of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is 
the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not. 
There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There 
is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need 
to convince others by force that it is right. 

You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking 
something that we have to give, and all that we have to give is 
this: We can not exempt you from work; no man is exempt 
from work anywhere in the world. We can not exempt you from 
the strife and the heartbreaking burden of the struggle of the 
day; that is common to mankind everywhere. We can not ex¬ 
empt you from the loads that you must carry; we can only make 
them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the 
spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice. 


AMERICANIZATION 


81 


When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the commit¬ 
tee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet 
this great company of newly admitted citizens I could not de¬ 
cline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, 
and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit as an American to be 
here. In Washington men tell you so many things every day 
that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of 
a great body of my fellow citizens, whether they have been my 
fellow citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, 
out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling what 
you have so generously given me—the sense of your support and 
of the living vitality in your hearts of the great ideals which 
have made America the hope of the world. 


THE FOREIGN-BORN AMERICAN CITIZEN 

George A. Gordon 

IMMIGRANT, WRITER, PROFESSOR, MINISTER OF THE OLD SOUTH 
CHURCH, BOSTON 

The Republic of the United States is in fact a nation of 
immigrants, a nation of aliens. All have made the great migra¬ 
tion, all have come hither from other parts of the earth. The 
only difference among Americans is that some came earlier while 
others came later, indeed as it were yesterday, to these shores. 
The only aboriginal American is the Indian. This historical fact 
should be forever borne in mind. We came hither first or last, 
across the ocean, and from the ends of the earth. 

There is however a ground of distinction among Americans; 
they are rightly divided into native citizens and citizens foreign 
born. The native citizen has grown into the being of the society 
that his alien ancestors helped to form. He has in his blood an 
American inheritance; his instincts have been fed with native 
food; he is alive to nothing else as he is to the American Re¬ 
public. We foreign-born Americans acknowledge-his distinc¬ 
tion, we rejoice in his happiness, we count ourselves fortunate 
to stand with him in the great communion of free citizens. We 
ask him, in his turn, to read in the story of our migration the 
struggle of his ancestors; we remind him of what we left be- 


82 


AMERICANIZATION 


hind, what we brought with us, and at what cost we gained our 
American citizenship. 

In the words that I have chosen as my text [And the chief 
captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship .— 
Acts 22: 28] we have a foreign-born Roman citizen. Exactly 
where he was born we do not know; we do know that he was 
born outside Roman citizenship. He was, therefore, an adopted 
citizen of the Roman Empire and to this he refers in the words 
that I have quoted, “With a great sum obtained I this citizen¬ 
ship.” 

There are three implications in these words: the cost of 
citizenship to this man; the privilege of citizenship to him; his 
duty as a Roman citizen. These three points will be a convenient 
guide to us in our discussion of the subject, The Foreign-born 
American Citizen. 

1. First of all, then, there is the cost to this man of citizen¬ 
ship in the Roman Empire. He obtained it with a great sum; 
to get it made him poor. 

There are few among native-born American citizens who 
understand the sacrifice made by foreign-born citizens of the 
heritage of childhood and boyhood in the wonder-world of early 0 
life. There is the bereavement of the early mystic, unfathom¬ 
able touch of nature that comes to one only through one’s na¬ 
tive land. Never again to see the sun rise and set over the dear 
old hills, with the hero’s mantle like the bloom of the heather 
resting upon them, and the shadow of an immemorial race, is 
truly a great bereavement. Never again to see the green pastures, 
with the flocks quietly feeding in them, under the shade of the 
plot of trees here and there mercifully provided by the humanity 
of previous generations, nor to hear the music of the river that 
has sung into being and out of being forty generations of human 
lives; never again to see the fields covered with corn, nor to 
hear the reaper’s song among the yellow corn; never again to 
see the light that welcomed you when you were born, that smiled 
on you when you were baptized, that went with you to school, 
that watched your play, that constituted the beautiful, the glori¬ 
ous environment of your early days; never again to hear the 
song of the native birds, the skylark in the morning, the mavis 
at nightfall, and the wild whistle of the blackbird under the 
heat of noon from his thorny den—all this is simply an inex¬ 
pressible bereavement. Nature is inwoven with the soul in its 


AMERICANIZATION 


83 


earliest years, its beauty, its wildness, its soul becomes part of 
the soul of every deep-hearted human being, and never again 
can nature be seen as she was seen through the wonder of life’s 
morning. 

It is this spell of nature over the young soul that gives its 
exquisite pathos to Hood’s world-familiar melody: 

“I remember, I remember, 

The house where I was born, 

The little window where the sun 
Came peeping in at morn; 

He never came a wink too soon, 

Nor brought too long a day, 

But now, I often wish the night 
Had borne my breath away! 

****** 

“I remember, I remember, 

The fir trees dark and high; 

I used to think their slender tops 
Were close against the sky: 

It was a childish ignorance, 

But now ’tis little joy 

To know I’m farther off from heav’n 

Than when I was a boy.” 

There it is, the mystic, divine influence of nature through 
the atmosphere of the country of one’s birth; every immigrant 
to this country makes that great surrender. 

There is, too, the early humanity. You go down-town, you who 
are native-born American citizens, and every day you meet those 
whom you have known from birth, your earliest playmates and 
schoolmates, and those who went to college with you, who en¬ 
tered business with you, who fought side by side with you through 
the great war, revered what you revered, laughed at what you 
laughed at and felt as you felt over the glory and tenderness of 
existence. You do not know what they have left behind them 
who never see a face that they knew in childhood, who will never 
meet again, till time is no more, a schoolmate or an earlier com¬ 
panion, who will never gather again in the old home with father 
and mother and brothers and sisters; only the most favored have 
had a fugitive glance, like looking at a telegraph pole from an 


84 


AMERICANIZATION 


express train, of those dear, early faces. There is a whole world 
of bereavement of early, tender, beautiful humanity on the part 
of all who come here. And this, again, you hear in those two 
verses in “Auld Lang Syne” : 


“We twa hae run about the braes, 

And pu’d the gowans fine, 

But we’ve wandered monie a weary foot 
Sin’ auld lang syne. 

“We twa hae paidl’d in the burn 
From morning sun till dine, 

But seas between us braid hae roar’d 
Sin’ auld lang syne.” 

There is one other surrender: there is the suffering of adjust¬ 
ment in a new country. The first year I spent in Boston, from 
July, 1871, to considerably more than July, 1872, I conceived my 
condition to be as near that of the spirits in hell as anything I 
could imagine! To be in a city where nobody knew you, where 
you knew nobody, where so many wanted to take advantage of 
the “greenhorn,” to laugh at him if he ever grew for a moment 
a bit sentimental, was not exactly heaven. Many and many a 
time I went down to the wharf to see the ships with their white 
sails, written all over with invisible tidings from the far, sunny 
islands left behind, and if I had not been restrained by shame 
and pride I should have gone home. That is the experience of 
the Scandinavian, English, Scotch, Irish, Teuton, Slav, Armenian, 
Syrian, and Latin; the bereavement of nature and early human¬ 
ity is deepened by the sorrow of readjustment in a foreign land. 
“With a great sum obtained we this citizenship”; few under¬ 
stand it, few indeed. Foreign-born American citizenship is pre¬ 
ceded by a vast sacrifice, and you never can understand that sort 
of citizenship till you take an account of this really profound 
experience. 

2. The next thing in the experience of the chief captain was 
his privilege as a Roman citizen. His station and bearing and 
power told of that privilege. He was a military tribune in the 
legion stationed in Jerusalem; he had risen to important com¬ 
mand and power impossible for him, inaccessible to him if he 
had not obtained citizenship. 


AMERICANIZATION 


85 


America has been called the land of opportunity. Look at 
this fact in three directions only, since time will allow no more. 
The common workman may become, by intelligence, by diligence 
and by fidelity, the master workman. Cast your eyes over the 
land to-day and assemble the master workmen and you will find 
that the vast majority of them have risen from the position of 
ordinary workmen to the chief places in their trade and calling. 
Such a chance for ascension in a broad way for all competent 
men, in the Old World, is a simple impossibility. The chance 
does not exist there. Men rise there by talent and by luck, by 
talent and by favoritism. But here in a broad and magnificent 
manner they rise by talent and industry, fidelity and force; 
here as nowhere else they have a chance to work out what is 
in them. 

Consider this in the things of intellect. The Old World calls 
us an uneducated race. It is true that we have not many great 
scholars; the reason is that we are engaged with immediate 
pressing problems; we apply intelligence to living issues which 
in other lands is applied to the Genitive and the Accusative and 
the Dative cases of the Latin and Greek languages. When we 
look backward and consider the provision made for the intellect 
of the nation during the last fifty years, we claim that there is 
no parallel to it in any country on which the sun shines. More 
money has gone to colleges and schools and universities for men 
and for women, open to all talent from ocean to ocean and 
from the Canadian border to the Gulf, than was ever dedicated 
to education in the same length of time in the history of man¬ 
kind. Not only is there provision for the regulars but also for 
the irregulars; all sorts of evening schools flourish in our cities 
where the first teachers of the community are available for 
talented and aspiring youth of slender means. Men are prac¬ 
ticing medicine and law; they are in the ministry and in other 
professions, usually called learned, who never saw the inside of 
a college or university, who have obtained an eduaction in what 
is called an irregular way, from and by the very men who are 
teaching in these regular academic institutions. 

Let me remind you of the abundant hospitality, the wonderful 
generosity of the American people toward aspiring youth. Talent 
which would be ignored in Great Britain, promise which would 
be sneered at in every continental country in Europe, is here 
discovered and encouraged to develop into power. This is a 


86 


AMERICANIZATION 


phenomenon of which we must never lose sight, the chance here 
in the United States for a man to be intellectually all that it is 
possible for him to be. The best teachers may often be seen 
here wielding the educational power of history and the arts to 
train the youth to whom college is an impossibility, for service 
requiring eduacted powers, in his day and generation. 

There is to be noted the opportunity in the war of character 
and moral influence that comes to citizens of the United States. 
What does that mean? The chance to change and improve the 
law of the land, the chance for a man to change and improve 
the government of the United States, the chance to modify in 
the line of humanity the social feeling of the United States. 
And freedom is here the condition of all; it is the breath of life; 
every man who complains that things are not what they should 
he has a chance by his vote to remedy the abuse and to take 
another step toward the ideal. 

Here again is .something new, measuring it against the whole 
people. We are dupes and fools when we allow ourselves to be 
ruled by groups in this country; we are free men, with the power 
in our hands. If we have moral ideals of our own, and moral 
character, we can so use them as to lift the character of the land 
in which we live. 

3. Finally, there was the duty of the tribune as a Roman 
citizen. Paul was about to be bound and tortured, without trial, 
when he appealed to the chief captain, “Is it lawful for you to 
scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?” This 
startled the man. “Tell me, art thou a Roman? Good heavens, 
this will never do! I am pledged to do my duty! Get off those 
shackles and set the man free and guard his life!” There was 
the man’s sense of his duty. 

What is the duty of foreign-born American citizens? First to 
learn the English language and to prefer it to all other tongues 
on the face of the earth. That tongue comes in the splendor of 
a June day, it breaks over life like a June sunrise, with an atmos¬ 
phere, tone, beauty, and power for which Americans must ever 
be unapproachable. Let no American citizen hug his foreign 
tongue, go into a closet with it and shut out the light of the 
great English language which carries all our ideals as Americans! 
The very vessel of the Lord it is, in which American freedom is 
carried, the language of Shakespeare and' Milton, the incompar¬ 
able free man: the language of Bacon and Burke and Washing- 


AMERICANIZATION 


87 


ton and Hamilton and Webster and Lincoln. This tongue conse¬ 
crates the immigrant who would be a citizen; he can never be 
a citizen of the United States without that, never. This is the 
tongue that carries in a unique translation the literature of 
Israel; the Bible is the maker of free peoples. 

Next, we foreign-born American citizens must read the story 
of the Revolution into our blood. What is the significance of 
the Revolution for the foreign-born American citizen? These 
men were Englishmen or the sons of Englishmen; they loved the 
British Isles better than any portion of the earth’s surface, ex¬ 
cept their own Colonies; they loved them with an inexpressible 
love. Yet when it came to a question of principle they stood 
out and said, “We must be free; the Colonies, or the United 
States, first!” You recall Daniel Webster’s spendid eloquence 
here: 

“On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet 
afar off, they raised their flag against a power to which, for pur¬ 
poses of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome in the height 
of her glory is not to be compared—a power which has dotted 
over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and 
military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and 
keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one 
continuous and unbroken strain of the mental airs of England.” 

Against that power to which they were as nothing, against 
that lovely land of their origin, they stood out when it was a 
question of their own~independence and their own manhood. 

That applies to every foreign-born American citizen today— 
Saxon, Celt, Scandinavian, Teuton, Slav, Latin, Syrian, bond and 
free. Learn the lesson of the Revolution. This country will 
have no hands upon it, from any origin, anywhere outside itself. 
Learn the lesson of the Civil War; the nation that set to work 
to keep its integrity as a political whole, to keep its integrity as a 
human whole, to fight, as it had done a foreign dominion, an 
evil genius inside its own border. There again is a vast lesson 
to all of us who are foreign born. Once again we should store 
in memory and ponder in clearest conscience and intelligence 
the gerat ideas, the great political ideas of America as they are 
exhibited in Washington, in Hamilton the Nationalist, and in 
Jefferson the State Rights’ patriot; and again in Webster and 
Calhoun, in Lincoln and the Confederate, and as they issued at 
last in a true conception of state freedom in a sistrhood of 


88 


AMERICANIZATION 


states that constitutes a great nation. These things should be 
part of the common store of knowledge of the adopted citizen. 
They are the great forces that have moved this country from 
its earliest beginning, and that have lifted it into power and re¬ 
nown. 

America must be first; cherish your love for the old coun¬ 
try, your tenderness—a man does not need to hate his mother 
because he loves his wife, but it is his duty to stand by his wife 
even against his mother. What kind of a country should we 
have if every citizen, when trouble comes, should prefer in 
loyalty the land of his birth! What a confused mob of a 
country we should have! Duty overrides origin, tradition, sen¬ 
timent. Here and here alone is our supreme and inviolable 
obligation. 

I often think that this great country of ours is ultimately to 
be the deepest-hearted and the brighest-minded nation of the 
world. Hither come, with sore hearts, burdened humanity and 
quickened intelligence, the elect; yes, the elect from all nations. 
You look at them when they land and you laugh. If you had 
been in Quebec when I landed perhaps you would not have 
wanted me for your minister! The elect from all nations, parts 
of a splendid orchestra—violin, flute, cornet, drum, trumpet, and 
a score of other instruments, all pouring forth their genius to 
make the great, swelling, soul-stirring symphony of this mighty 
nation. Thus from Scandinavia, Germany, France, Italy, Rus¬ 
sia, Armenia, Greece; from England, Ireland and Scotland they 
come—all are here with great souls to make a new and greater 
America. Out of this composite land, this Pentecostal nation— 
sometimes it seems to me minus the Holy Ghost—this nation 
gathered from every people under the heaven, rags and tatters and 
dirt and all, I believe that the Eternal Spirit will evolve and 
establish the most gifted, the most far-shining and the mightiest 
people in the world. God grant that our dream may come true! 


The Appeal of the Nations. 15-29. Boston. Pilgrim Press. 1917. 


AMERICANIZATION 


89 


AMERICAN IDEALS AND RACE MIXTURE 

Percy Stickney Grant 

AMERICAN RECTOR, CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, NEW YORK; WORKER 
FOR HIS FELLOW MEN. 

Ihe rapidity with which the democratic ideas are taken on 
by immigrants under the influence of our institutions is remark¬ 
able. I have personally had experiences with French-Canadians, 
Portuguese, Hebrews and Italians. These races have certainly 
taken advantage of their opportunities among us in a fashion to 
promise well for their final effect upon this country. The 
French-Canadian has become a sufficiently good American to 
have given up his earlier programme of turning New England 
into a new France—that is, into a Catholic province or of return¬ 
ing to the Province of Quebec. He is seeing something better 
than a racial or religious ideal in the freedom of American citi¬ 
zenship; and on one or two occasions, when he had political 
power in two municipalities, he refrained from exercising it to 
the detriment of the public-school system. He has added a 
gracious manner and a new feeling for beauty to New England 
traits. 

The Portuguese have taken up neglected or abandoned New 
England agricultural land and have turned it to productive and 
valuable use. Both the French-Canadian and the Portuguese 
have come to us by way of the New England textile mills. 

The actual physical machinery of civilization—cotton-mills, 
woolen-mills, iron-mills, etc.—lock up a great deal of human en¬ 
ergy physical and mental, just as one hundred years ago the 
farms did, from which later sprang most of the members of our 
dominant industrial class. A better organization of society, by 
which machinery would do still more and afford a freer play for 
mental and physical energy and organization, would find a re¬ 
sponse from classes that are now looked upon as not contributing 
to our American culture; would unlock the high pofentialities in 
the laboring classes, now unguessed and unexpended. 

The intellectual problems and the advanced thinking of the 
Hebrew, his fondness for study, and his freedom on the whole 
from wasteful forms of dissipation, sport, and mental stagnation, 
constitute him a more fortunate acquisition for this'country than 
are thousands of the descendants of Colonial settlers. In short 


90 


AMERICANIZATION 


we must reconstruct our idea of democracy—of American de¬ 
mocracy. This done, we must construct a new picture of citizen¬ 
ship. If we do these things we shall welcome the rugged 
strength of the peasant or the subtle thought of the man of the 
Ghetto in our reconsidered American ideals. After all, what are 
these American ideals we boast so much about? Shall we say 
public schools, the ballot, freedom? The American stock use 
private schools when they can afford them; they too often leave 
town on Election Day; as for freedom, competent observers be¬ 
lieve it is disappearing. The conservators and believers in 
American ideals seem to be our immigrants. To the Russian 
Jew, Abraham Lincoln is a god. If American ideals are such as 
pay honor to the intellectual and to the spiritual or foster human 
brotherhood or love culture and promote liberty, then they are 
safe with our new citizens who are eager for these things. 

Not only do these races bring with them most desirable 
qualities, but they themselves are subjected to new environment 
and strongly influential conditions. Just here arise duties for 
the preesnt masters of America. Ought they not to create an 
industrial, social and educational environment of the most up¬ 
lifting sort for our foreign-born citizens? 

If working-people are obliged to live in unhealthful tene¬ 
ments situated in slums or marsh land, if the saloon is allowed 
to be their only social center, if they are fought by the rich in 
every effort to improve their condition, we may expect any mis¬ 
fortune to happen to them and' also any fate to befall the State. 

What improved milieu can do to improve the psysique is 
easily seen on all sides. The increase in the height and weight 
of Americans in the last few decades is conspicuous. Even the 
size of American girls and boys has increased, and this increase 
in size is commonly attributed to the more comfortable condi¬ 
tions of life, to better food, and especially to the popularity of all 
forms of athletics, and the extension, as in the last twenty-five 
or thirty years, of the out-of-door and country life. If th'ese 
factors have made so marked and visible a change in the physique 
of the children of native-born Americans, why may not the 
same conditions also contribute an improvement to the more 
recent immigrant stock ? 

Our question, then, as to the effect of race mixture is not the 
rather supercilious one: What are we admitting into America 
that may possibly injure American ideals? but, What are the old 


AMERICANIZATION 


9i 


American races doing to perpetuate these ideals? And is not 
our future as a race, largely by our own fault, in the hands of 
the peasant races of Europe? 

After all, for those who pin their faith to the Baltic and 
northern European races, there is reason for hope to be found 
even in current immigration. From 1899 to 1910, the Hebrew, 
southern Italian, Polish and Slovak period, of the nine millions 
who landed in the United States, while there were 377,527 
Slovaks and 318,151 Magyars, there were 408,614 English, 586,306 
Scandinavians, and 754375 Germans, and even 136,842 Scotch, 
151,774 Finnish, 439,724 Irish and 20,752 Welsh. Two millions 
and a half from northern Europe—over twenty-six per cent. One 
million seventy-four thousand are Hebrews, mostly from Russia; 
and the Russian Jews, according to a most distinguished German 
Jew, are intellectually the ablest Hebrews in America. If, on 
the other hand, nearly two millions of the immigrants of the 
last decade have been southern Italians, let us show them grati¬ 
tude for their invaluable manual labor, for their willingness, 
their patience, their power for fast work, and their love of 
America. Their small stature does not argue their degeneracy. 
The Romans were small compared to the Goths—small, but well 
formed and strong. The Japanese are also small. 

Indifference, prejudice, illiteracy, segregation of recent im¬ 
migrants by parochial schools, by a native colonial press, bad 
physical and social environment, and the low American ideals of 
citizenship held by those the immigrant sees or hears most about, 
obstruct race assimilation; but all these can be changed. Yes, it 
is the keeping up of difference and class isolation that destroys 
and deteriorates. Fusion is a law of progress. 

* * * * * * 

Every act of religious or civil tyranny, every economic wrong 
done to races in all the world, becomes the burden of the nation 
to which the oppressed flee for relief and opportunity. And the 
beauty of democracy is that it is a method by which these needs 
may freely express themselves and bring about what the op¬ 
pressed have prayed for and have been denied. Let us be careful 
not to put America into the class of the oppressors. Let us rise 
to an eminence higher than that occupied by Washington or Lin¬ 
coln, to a new Americanism which is not afraid of the blending 
in the western world of races seeking freedom. Our present 
problem is the greatest in our history. Not colonial inde- 


92 


AMERICANISM 


pendence, not Federal unity, but racial amalgamation is the 
heroic problem of the present, with all it implies in purification 
and revision of old social, religious and political deals, with all 
it demands in new sympathy outside of blood and race, and in 
a willingness to forego old-time privileges. 

****** 

If America has done anything for an American, it ought to 
have made him helpful and hopeful toward mankind, especially 
the poor and oppressed; but science to-day comes to the assist¬ 
ance of democracy and finds the lyric cry of brotherhood in the 
laws of nature: 

“Open thy gates, O thou favored of Heaven, 

Open thy gates to the homeless and poor. 

So shalt thou garner the gifts of the ages— 

From the Northlands their vigor, 

The Southlands their grace, 

In a mystical blending of souls that presages 
The birth of earth’s rarest, undreamable race.” 

North American Review. 195:513-25. April, 1912. 


THE MELTING POT 

Israel Zangwill, 

DRAMATIST, POET, PHILSOPHER 

“There she lies, the great Melting Pot. Listen! Can’t you 
hear the roaring and the bubbling? There gapes her mouth— 
the harbor where a thousand mammoth feeders come from the 
ends of the world to pour in their human freight. Ah, what a 
stirring and a seething! Celt and Latin, Slav and Teuton, 
Greek and Syrian—black and yellow. Yes, East and West, and 
North and South, the palm and the pine, the pole and the 
equator, the crescent and the cross—how the great Alchemist 
melts and fuses them with his purging flame! Here shall they 
all unite to build the Republic of Man and the kingdom of 
God. Ah, what is the glory of Rome and Jerusalem where 
all nations and races come to worship and look back, compared 
with the glory of America, where all races come to labor and 
look forward. 

The Melting Pot. A drama. New York Macmillan, 1909. 


AMERICANIZATION 


93 


HENRY HUDSON’S LOG 

A. Guiterman 

Wee anchored safe in Fathoms four 
Within a Baye, and did espic 
A pleasaunt, many-peopled Shore 
Within a Baye, and did espie 


From where some Natives, partlie tamed, 

Did come in Shallops nine or ten 
To make us Speeches—these were named 
“Ye Sons-in-Lawe of Famous Men.” 

Ashore wee went, and soon a Band 
Appeared, bedecked with Silver Starres, 

Which called themselves, I understand 
“Ye Sons of Them Which Fitt in Warres.” 

Another Tribe did entertaine 
Our Tars at Meat within an Halle, 

And they were hight, “Ye Noble Straine 
Of Them Which Came Here First of Alle!” 

Their Womankind in Bevies Twain 
Did make us Cheere with Daunce and Song, 

But eyther Group in hie Disdain 

Did scorn ye other Lovelie Throng; 

Yea, each called other, “Sycophants” 

And “Upstarte Crewe ! ”—Their Rightful Names 
Were “Nieces of Ancestral Aunts,” 

And “Daughters of Maternal Dames.” 

Ye “Sons of Irish Pioneers,” 

Ye “Natives Sons of Foreign Kynges,” 

Ye “Sons of Hessian Grenadiers,” 

And Sundrie Sons of Other Thynges 


94 


AMERICANIZATION 


About us raised a Goodlie Stir, 

A Modest Folk they seemed to mee, 

More Vaine of what their Fathers were 
Than Proud of what theirselves might bee. 

Yet more were there too Low to wear 

Grand Coats-of-Arms or courtlie Masks— 
An Hoste which found no Time to spare 
But strongly toiled at many Tasks. 

I craved of One of Sturdie Mold, 

“What ‘Sons’ bee ye?” With Merrie Face, 
“No ‘Sons’!” he cried; “in us behold 
Ye Fathers of ye Coming Race.” 

The Laughing Muse. pp. 82-4. Harper. 1915. 


ESSENTIALS FOR AMERICANIZATION (1916) 

Edward A. Steiner 

PROFESSOR OF APPLIED CHRISTIANITY, GRINNELL COLLEGE, IOWA; IM¬ 
MIGRANT, AMERICAN, BORN IN AUSTRIA. 

In my judgment we have succeeded in keeping America a 
country of English speech just because we have not insisted upon 
it. If there had been governmental pressure brought to bear 
. upon the immigrant’s use of English we would have fallen heir 
to the confusion of Babel, and to the never ending language 
problems of many of the countries of Europe. 

Just because we have not objected to religion’s being 
preached in the tongue in which men were born, the second gen¬ 
eration demanded to hear it in English. 

We have permitted the Poles to build a Polish college which 
will languish, and ultimately pass away, just as the purely Ger¬ 
man colleges have languished and died. The one thing we need 
to make the hyphen permanent, or, worse still, make this a coun¬ 
try of warring hyphens, is to demand through pressure that 


AMERICANIZATION 


95 


nothing but the English language shall be taught and spoken 
here. 

I am not sure that we can, or that we ought, to accelerate 
Americanization. Thus far it has been a contagion with no 
artificial stimulus. When we shall say “Go to, we will Amer¬ 
icanize you,” there will be organized efforts to resist us, and the 
resistance will grow with our insistence. 

We have, I am sure, lost many opportunities to interpret 
America to the immigrant, especially to the adult. He does not 
come in contact with any of our national institutions except the 
saloon and the police court. If he does become a citizen he 
usually attains to that high and holy privilege through the venal 
politician. 

The whole process of naturalization, which has received some 
attention in these later years, needs to be further revised and 
improved; especially by dignifying it and by making the ap¬ 
plicant realize that it is a privilege which he may forfeit if he 
does not perform its duties conscientiously. 

I am not sure that the attempt to accelerate naturalization, by 
making the process easier, may not end in cheapening it still 
further. I believe that every man who wishes to become a citizen 
ought to be willing to take pains and make sacrifices, if neces¬ 
sary to gain that end. 

Citizenship is too valuable a possession to be thrown at people, 
and it is a mistaken notion to believe that because a man has 
taken out his naturalization papers he is necessarily a patriot. In 
fact, we know that the two are not identical, and I can easily 
imagine myself loving this country and being ready to sacrifice 
myself for it, even had I not the sometimes doubtful privilege of 
voting. 

We should apply a test more searching than the mere answer¬ 
ing of a few questions which may be learned by rote. No man 
should be allowed to become a citizen unless his conduct, during 
five years’ residence in this country, has proved that he is already 
an American in spirit; that he knows the meaning of liberty and 
has not abused it; and that he is capable of cooperating with 
others in realizing that freedom. 

He ought to be able to prove that he has left behind him 
Europe’s racial, religious and national animosities and prejudices. 
He ought not to become a child of this democracy, and, as often 


96 


AMERICANIZATION 


happens, an added care, until he has proved that he know* its 
meaning and has lived up to it. 

These rigid tests might be difficult to apply, but certainly I 
should be greatly opposed to any cheapening of the process. The 
exploited immigrant is very poor material for good citizenship, 
whether that exploitation has been made by the shrewder and 
earlier comers among his own, which is frequently the case, by 
heartless corporations, or by petty officials who are supposed to 
protect him. 

Our satellite cities, crude, huge, springing up to-day and ready 
to perish to-morrow, are poor places in which to train men for 
citizenship. The hovels in which the immigrants live, or are 
permitted to live, the vulgarity and brutality of the life which 
surrounds them, are also poor places for the training of future 
American citizens from whom we expect self-respect, respect for 
others, and power to control themselves and others. 

The greatest enemy of the immigrant is the saloon; and if he 
could not obtain liquor, it would prove one of the greatest bless¬ 
ings to him and to the community in which he lives. 

It is more necessary to prohibit the sale of liquor to certain 
groups of immigrants than to the Indians: for the most docile 
and law-abiding among them are turned into fiends by its use. 
It has been one of the most potent agencies in despoiling and 
corrupting them. 

A rigid insistence upon economic and social justice, and the 
assurance that the state looks upon them as something more 
than animated machines, to be used and abused at the owners’ 
will, would bind these millions in gratitude to the country of 
which they know little or nothing, except when they are punished 
for breaking its laws. 

I have strongly urged, but thus far in vain, that every ship 
which carries emigrants should have on board a United States 
officer who would use the time of transit to instruct the people 
coming to us. They should be told of their privileges and their 
duties, the nature of our government and the part they may 
ultimately have in it. 

I have often acted voluntarily in such a capacity, and have 
found that by the aid of immigrants who are returning to us, 
such instruction can be effectively given. 

Much of the preliminary work of inspection could thus be 


AMERICANIZATION 


97 


done. I know there are difficulties in the way, but they are not 
insurmountable. 

The immigrant receiving station should not be merely a 
heartless machine for this sifting of human material. The gov¬ 
ernment ought to do something more for these people than put 
a chalk mark upon their coats, or open the gate of a strange 
and new country without a word of advice or warning. 

Our national holidays might gain new significance for us if 
in some public manner we would share them with these new¬ 
comers for whom festivals have always had great religious and 
national meaning. 

The machinery of electing our public servants might be 
made elevating rather than degrading to the new sharers of the 
great privileges o.f our democracy. 

I have the utmost faith in the power of a good example, and 
firmly believe that we must develop a finer type of native Amer¬ 
ican citizen. 

Consider the attitude of the average American towards the 
government of his city or country, the low tone of our discus¬ 
sion of public issues, the ridicule which we heap upon our of¬ 
ficials from which even the chief magistrate is not spared; the 
personal and partisan selfishness so strongly in evidence even in 
this most critical moment of our national life. Need we then 
wonder if every hyphenated citizen does not manifest the 
gracious unselfishness of a George Washington or the sacrificial 
devotion of an Abraham Lincoln? 

At least one American writer shows ignorance regarding the 
immigrant’s character by calling him ungrateful. 

Among all his shortcomings this is the least, and among his 
virtues it is the greatest, as every one knows who has sensed the 
soul of these grateful people. 

There are among them those who bitterly assail our social 
order, with its glaring injustice to the many. They criticize our 
laws which protect property to the neglect of person, which is 
infinitely more sacred. They are merely doing in their crude 
way what is being done every day in our colleges in a somewhat 
more refined but more incisive way. The difference is that the 
agitator prints his protest in pamphlets and binds them in red; 
while the professor writes a volume which he calls a text-book. 

No, they are not an ungrateful people. It is true that one of 


98 


AMERICANISM 


them has said, in public print, that when the war is over the 
Germans will return to the Fatherland en masse, because all 
they sought here was economic betterment. There may be an 
exodus of some Germans. In fact every German who has ceased 
to be a loyal American, who has no confidence in her institutions, 
who has no faith in her ideals, ought to return, for he would be 
a menace to those of us who remain and who will find it difficult 
enough to be trusted at a time when we shall be eager to prove 
our love and loyalty to our adopted country. 

The larger number which will expatriate itself from this 
country will be certain Americans returning to their chateaux in 
France, their pensions and villas in Italy, and their spas and 
cursaals in Germany. All these are now deserted, nearly bank¬ 
rupt, and will be glad when the Americans return. 

The problem will not be to keep the immigrants from going 
back; the real problem will be, how, wisely to regulate the in¬ 
flow which is bound to come when the war ceases. 

We, the ’’Hyphenated Americans,” will stay, because we need 
this country, because humanity needs it and its institutions, now 
as never before. We wish to help it become such a country as it 
ought to be, kept from Europe’s plagues, and healed from its 
disease. We wish to live and work so that we shall have the 
right to call it our country. We ought to have the same right 
to it as had those of our kin who followed your rivers, the 
Mohawk, the Ohio and the Mississipi; drawing their plows 
through your marshes, defying fever and pestilence, laying the 
foundations of your national wealth, and shedding their blood 
upon your battlefields. 

We want this to become our country, through the labor of 
the men who mine your coal, who dig and melt your ore; and 
by the sacrifices of those who die in the heart of the mine and 
are slain at the mouth of the pit. 

These brave millions working so courageously are ours and 
yours; the pioneers of a new epoch, the creators of a new era. 
It is for you to say what the coming days are to mean to them, 
and to you, and to the country which they love in spite of its 
sins against them. 

What will you do with them? It is for you to say. You 
may break them over the wheels of what you proudly call 
progress. You may starve them into the submissive serfdom 
out of which they have escaped. You may make them ashamed 


AMERICANIZATION 


99 


of their heritage, lodged in brain and heart, or you may make 
cowards of them and compel them to bow before your flag, as a 
symbol of authority; but they will not be Americans. 

The only way I know in which to make Americans of them, 
members of a free commonwealth, is to treat them like human 
beings. 

Treat them as you would the child born late into your own 
family—as one of you; have confidence in them, even in these 
days, when their loyalty may be wavering, and when in their 
confusion they do not know where to turn. 

This is a time of heart-searching for us who have accepted 
America’s sanctuary, and also for those born in this land of the 
free. To the native American there comes a call to curb his in¬ 
dividualism without sacrificing his individuality; to quicken his 
patriotic impulses without dulling his feeling to prepare for war, 
and a still more insistent call to prepare for peace; a deep, down- 
reaching peace, a high, uplifting peace. 

For us, so-called “Hyphenated Americans,” this period is one 
to severely test our loyalty to this country which has become 
ours by the grace of its people. They are a generous people, 
who mean to be just, a people whom we know to be far better 
than they appear to us now, and to whom we are bound for all 
time. 

In our heart of hearts we love this country more than Ger¬ 
many or Austria or England or Trance; we love it above the 
holy names of Jerusalem or Rome—The Sanctuary of Humanity 
—America. 

Confessions of a hyphenated American, pp. 51-63, a lecture delivered 
under the auspices of the League for Political Education, New York. 
Fleming H. Revell Company. 1916. 


NEW AMERICANS 

Walter E. Weyl 

ECONOMIST, STATISTICIAN, STUDENT OF DEMOCRACY 

When we compare the America of today with the America 
of half a century ago, certain differences stand out sharply. 
America to-day is far richer. It is is also more stratified. Our 
social gamut has been widened. There are more vivid contrasts, 
more startling differences, in education and in the general 
chances of life. We are less rural and more urban, losing the 


100 


AMERICANIZATION 


virtues and the vices, the excellences and the stupidities, of 
country life, and gaining these of the city. We are missing in our 
cities armies of the poor to take the place of country ne’er-do- 
wells and village hangers-on. We are more sophisticated. We 
are more lax and less narrow. We have lost our earlier frugal 
simplicity, and have become extravagant and competitively lavish. 
We have, in short, created a new type of American, who lives 
in the city, reads newspapers and even books, bathes frequently, 
travels occasionally; a man, fluent intellectually and physically 
restless, ready but not profound, intent upon success, not with¬ 
out idealism, but somewhat disillusioned, pleasure-loving, hard 
working, humorous. At the same time there grows a sense of a 
social maladjustment, a sense of a failure of America to live up 
to expectations, and an intensifying desire to right a not clearly 
perceived wrong. There develops a vigorous, if somewhat 
vague and untrained, moral impulse, an impulse based on social 
rather than individual ethics, unesthetic, democratic, headlong. 

Although this development might have come about in part, 
at least, without immigration, the process has been enormously 
accelerated by the arrival on our shores of millions of Europeans. 
These men came to make a living, and they made not only their 
own but other men’s fortunes. They hastened the dissolution 
of old conditions; they undermined old standards by introducing 
new; their very traditions facilitated the growth of that tradi¬ 
tionless quality of the American mind which hastened our 
material transformation. 

This very passivity of the newly arrived immigrant is the 
most tremendous of influences. The workman who does not 
join a union, the citizen who sends his immature children to the 
factory, the man who does not become naturalized, or who main¬ 
tains a standard of living below an inadequate wage, such a one 
by contagion and pressure changes conditions and lowers stand¬ 
ards all about him, undermining to the extent of his lethargy 
our entire social edifice. The aim of Americanization is to 
combat this passive influence. Two forces, like good and evil, 
are opposed on that long frontier line where the immigrant 
comes into contact with the older resident. The American, 
through self-protection, not love, seeks to raise the immigrant 
to his economic level; the immigrant, through self-protection, 
not through knowledge, involuntarily accepts conditions which 
tend to drag the American down to his. In this contest much 


AMERICANIZATION 


IOI 


that we ordinarily account virtue is evil; much that is ugly is 
good. The immigrant girl puts on a corset, exchanges her 
picturesque head-dress for a flowering monstrosity of an Ameri¬ 
can hat, squeezes her honest peasant’s foot into a narrow, thin- 
soled American shoe—and behold, it is good. It is a step 
toward assimilation, toward a more expensive if not a more 
lovely standard of living. It gives hostages to America. It 
makes the frenzied saving of the early days impossible. Docility, 
abnegation, and pecuniary abasement are not economic virtues, 
however highly they may be rated in another category. 

In still other ways this assimilation alters and limits the 
alien’s influence. Much is lost in the process. The immigrant 
comes to us laden with gifts, but we have not the leisure to take 
nor the opportunity to tender. The brilliant native costumes, 
the strange, vibrant dialects, the curious mental molds are soon 
faded or gone. The old religions, the old customs, the tradi¬ 
tional manners, the ancient lace do not survive the melting-pot. 
Assimilation, however necessary, ends the charm and rareness 
of our quaint human importations. 

The time has passed when we exulted in the number of 
grown-up men, bred at another country’s expense, who came 
to work for us and fertilize our soils with their dead bones. The 
time has passed when we believed that mere numbers were all. 
To-day, despite night schools, settlement, and a whole network 
of Americanizing agencies, we have teeming, polyglot slums and 
the clash of race with race in sweatshop and factory, mine and 
lumber-camp. We have a mixture of ideals, a confusion of 
standards, a conglomeration of clashing views of life. We, the 
many-nationed nation of America, bring the Puritan tradition, 
a trifle anemic and thin, a little the worse for disuse. The immi¬ 
grant brings a Babel of traditions, an all too plastic mind, a 
willingness to copy our virtues and vices, to imitate us for better 
or for worse. All of which hampers and delays the formation 
of a national consciousness. 

From whatever point we view the new America, we cannot 
help seeing how ultimately the changes have been bound up with 
our immigration, especially with that of recent years. The wide¬ 
ning of the social gamut becomes more significant when we re¬ 
call that with unrestricted immigration our poorest citizens are 
periodically recruited from the poor of the poorest countries of 
Europe. Our differences in education, while they have other 


102 


AMERICANIZATION 


causes, are sharply accentuated by our enormous development of 
university and high schools at the one end, and by the increasing 
illiteracy* of our immigrants at the other. In cities where there 
are large immigrant populations we note the beginning of a 
change in our attitude toward the public schools, toward uni¬ 
versal suffrage, toward many of the pious, if unrealized, national 
ideals of an earlier period. 

Fundamentally, however, the essential fact about our present- 
day immigration is not that the immigrant has changed (though 
that fact is of great importance), but that the America to which 
the immigrant comes has changed fundamentally and perma¬ 
nently. And the essential fact about the immigrant’s effect on 
American character is this, that the gift of the immigrant to the 
nation is not the qualities which he himself had at home, but 
the very qualities which Americans have always had. In other 
words, at a time when American industrial, political, and social 
conditions are changing, partly as a result of immigration itself, 
the immigrant hampers our psychological adjustment to such 
changes by giving scope and exercise to old national characteris¬ 
tics which should be obsolescent. 

America to-day is in transition. We have moved rapidly 
from one industrial world to another, and this progress has been 
aided and stimulated by immigration. The psychological change, 
however, which should have kept pace with this industrial transi¬ 
tion, has been slower and less complete. It has been retarded 
by the very rapidity of our immigration, and by the tremendous 
educational tasks which that influx placed upon us. The immi¬ 
grant is a challenge to our highest idealism, but the task of 
Americanizing the extra millions of new-comers has hindered 
progress in the task of democratizing America. 

Chautauquan. 39:217-25. My, 1904. 

Harper. 129:615-22. S. ’14. 

* Percentage of illiteracy among the foreign-born is apparently not in¬ 
creasing in spite of the great increase in numbers of illiterate foreign- 
born.—[Editor.] 


AMERICANIZATION 


103 


THE ALIEN 

Henry B. Fuller 

POET, KINDLY STUDENT OF HIS FELLOW MEN 

As a child 

In her own native town, 

She played amidst— 

But you, complaisant reader, 

Shall set the scene quite as you choose. 

Make her loved region 

Plainland or mountain, at your wish; 

And her natal place 

A close-built town of stuccoed fronts 

With a baroque-fagaded church for the dull priest, 

Crushed down by a deep pediment; 

Or let the church soar up in bulbous spires, 

From many loose disheveled shacks of wood. 

(In either case, make nothing of the school.) 

And let an unbridged river mope through wide marshes, 

Or dash in headlong flight 

Over a broad, sandy bottom to the sea. 

Let there be many unwilling soldiers, 

To cow their brothers of the street and fields; 

And tyrannous officials in abundant measure, 

Who draw their sanction from some distant capital— 

Or act without it; 

And let there be a few stout hearts, 

Impelled by hope, or misery, or courage, 

Or all three, 

To venture toward the other world. 

She crosses at ten; 

And after many days they showed her, 

Through a far-shimmering, watery haze, 

A towering, iron-spiked head, 

And told her she was free. 

Free in the close-built streets of a tight-packed city; 

Free in the swirling tide of the lately-come and the 
about-to-come; 

Free to trip or trudge behind a push-cart 
Through clattering ways; or, later, 


104 


AMERICANIZATION 


To mouse beneath a counter 

On which were heaped coarse gloves and shirts and shoes— 
Or, an it please you better, 

Strange cheeses and odd fruits or vegetables 
Plaited in strings or netted in festoons. 

And through it all—this newness— 

One’s own dear tongue, one’s old home ways. 

After a time, courted in the hurly-burly 
By one from her own province; 

Then another shop, better and bigger, 

With their own infants playing on the floor, 

Or chancing fate outside; 

And one of these, a son, 

Destined to be the family’s morning-star— 

Nay, its bright sun in the new heaven; 

The brightest boy in school— 

That school where this strange people 
Offered—and compelled—instruction free 
Then, after some brief years 
Through which he sharpened up his wits 
On theory and practice, 

He took his father’s petty shop and juggled it. 

It grew within his hands, beneath their eyes, 

To proportions quite unprecedented. 

He walked the shining road of quick success, 

Skipping from peak to peak. 

At thirty-five 

He labored in one palace, lived in another, 

And hundreds from his mother’s country, 

And other hundreds of abject natives, 

Slaved for his further good. 

Soon her grandsons were sporting familiarly 
Through picture-gallery or ballroom, 

And harrying costly furniture, 

Jacobean, Louis Seize or Empire— 

It changed with passing seasons— 

In childish games. 

There were dinners, stately showy things, 


AMERICANIZATION 


105 


From which she was discreetly absent, 

There were receptions, with music, let us say, 

At which she would appear briefly 
In distant doorways 

Blinking dark, narrow eyes at the incredible scene, 
And then retiring. 

It was a strange, strange world— 

A world apart from her, 

And she apart from it. 

She stumbled through its purlieus 
(Gorgeous they seemed), 

And stammered through its language 

(One she had never rightly learned to speak). 

In her retired bedroom 

She gossiped with a few old cronies 

Of origin like hers, 

And shyly entertained her grandchildren, 

When they would permit. 

On certain designated days 
Women, from somewhere, 

Went by, to somewhere, 

On public business—to “vote,” she heard it said: 

A thing repellent and incredible. 

Other things, no less repellent and incredible 
Were printed in the papers, she was told; 

But these she never read. 

In due course her grandsons 

Turned lawyers, doctors, “business men,” 

With weapons of offense and defense 
Unknown throughout her clan in earlier days. 
More than ever was she safeguarded and entrenched 
In this remote and alien world. 

A great war came. 

The quarrel had two sides, she heard. 

How two? 

Her heart, forgetful quite of old injustices, 

Was with the land where stood the little town, 

On mountain-stream or plain, 


io6 


AMERICANIZATION 


Which once had been her home, 

The spot of her nativity. 

And midst the family’s recent splendors 
The younger generations spoke up hotly 
(With less discretion than they used outside) 
About the exactions of “Americans” 

As to the attitude of newer stocks; 

And one young lad flung out, 

In a moment of high exasperation, 

That he would go and help his people’s cause. 
“Will they let you come back? ” she quavered. 
Laughter, and it was explained 
That the means for letting people in 
Were in good order, 

But the means for keeping people out 
Were good as missing. 

So, quietude. 

The world was kind and fair; 

Privileges were many; obligations, light. 

A good soul, all vague and isolate, 

Rocked to and fro in her protected chamber; 

A little in one world, 

A little in another, 

A good deal of both; 

But tending, 

By all the strength of lengthening age 
And early ties, 

To drift backward toward that world— 

For her at once both young and old— 

Where she began. 

Peace; let her fall asleep. 

But let her sons keep open eyes— 

And turn them the right way. 


Lines Long and Short, pp. 118-23. Houghton. 1917. 


AMERICANIZATION 


107 


ASSIMILATION AND PROGRESS 

Jeremiah W. Jenks and William J. Lauck 

The causes opposing the Americanization of the recent immi¬ 
grant population may be briefly summarized as follows: 

(1) Isolation from the natives of a large part of the immi¬ 
grant population. 

(2) Indifference, and to some extent prejudice, on the part 
of the natives toward immigrants. 

(3) Illiteracy of a large proportion of immigrants. 

(4) Ignorance resulting from peasant origin of nearly all of 
the southern European immigrants, and their unpreparedness for 
so decided changes in environment. 

(5) The influence of immigrant churches and parochial 
schools in emphasizing and maintaining racial and denomina¬ 
tional distinctions. 

(6) Inability to speak English. 

Those factors favorable to the Americanization of southern 
and eastern European are: 

(1) Employment of immigrants in American industries. 

(2) Employment of immigrant women as servants in Amer¬ 
ican households. 

(3) Residence to some extent of immigrants and natives 
and association resulting therefrom. 

(4) Attendance of immigrant children in American public 
schools and the teaching of the English and American branches 
in the immigrant parochial school. 

(5) The influence of immigrant priests and pastors in bring¬ 
ing about permanency of residence through the stimulation of 
property owning and home-making. 

The Immigration Problem, pp. 317-18. New York. Funk and Wagnalls 
Company. 1913- 


io8 


AMERICANIZATION 


AMALGAMATION AND ASSIMILATION 

John R. Commons 

, ECONOMIST, STUDENT OF HUMAN RELATIONS 

The term amalgamation may be used for that mixture of 
blood which unites races in a common stock, while assimilation 
is that union of their minds and will which enables them to 
think and act together. Amalgamation is a process of centuries 
but assimilation is a process of individual training. Amalgama¬ 
tion is a blending of races, assimilation a blending of civiliza¬ 
tions. Amalgamation is beyond the organized efforts of govern¬ 
ment, but assimilation can be promoted by social institutions and 
laws. Amalgamation therefore cannot attract our practical in¬ 
terest, except as its presence or absence sets limits to our efforts 
toward assimilation. 

We have very little exact information regarding the amalga¬ 
mation of races in America. The earlier census attempts to de¬ 
termine the number of mulattoes was an acknowledged failure 
and has been abandoned. Nor do we know to what extent there 
has been an amalgamation of the colonial nationalities. We do 
know, however, that for the most part they have blended into a 
united people, with harmonious ideals, and the English, the Ger¬ 
man, the Scotch-Irish, the Dutch and the Huguenot have become 
the American. 

We speak of superior and inferior races, and this is well 
enough, but care should be taken to distinguish between that 
superiority which is the original endowment of race and that 
which is the result of the education and training which we call 
civilization. While there are superior and inferior races, there 
are primitive, medieval and modern civilizations, and there are 
certain mental qualities required for and produced by these dif¬ 
ferent grades of civilization. A superior race may have a prim¬ 
itive or medieval civilization, and therefore its individuals may 
never have exhibited the superior mental qualities with which 
they are actually endowed and which a modem civilization would 
have called into action. The adults coming from such a civiliza¬ 
tion seem to be inferior in their mental qualities, but their chil¬ 
dren, placed in the new environments of the advanced civiliza¬ 
tion, exhibit at once the qualities of the latter. The Chinaman 
comes from a medieval civilization—he shows little of those 


AMERICANIZATION 


109 


qualities which are the product of western civilization, and with 
his imitativeness, routine and traditions, he has earned the rep¬ 
utation of being entirely non-assimilable. But the children of 
Chinamen, born and reared in this country, entirely disprove this 
charge, for they are as apt in absorbing the spirit and method of 
American institutions as any Caucasian. 1 

The Teutonic races, until five hundred years after Christ, 
were primitive in their civilization, yet they had the mental ca¬ 
pacities which made them, like Arminius, able to comprehend 
and absorb the highest Roman civilization. They passed through 
the medieval period and then came out into the modern period 
of advanced civilization, yet during these two thousand years 
their mental capacities, the original endowment of race, have 
scarcely improved. It is civilization, not race evolution, that has 
transformed the primitive warrior into the philosopher, scientist, 
artisan and business man. Could their babies have been taken 
from the woods two thousand years ago and transported to the 
homes and schools of modern America, they could have covered 
in one generation the progress of twenty centuries. 2 Other races, 
like the Scotch and the Irish, made the transition from primi¬ 
tive institutions to modern industrial habits within a single 
century, and Professor Brinton, our most profound student of 
the American Indian, has said, 3 “I have been in close relations 
to several full-blood American Indians who had been removed 
from an aboriginal environment and instructed in this manner 
[in American schools and communities] and I could not perceive 
that they were either in intellect or sympathies inferior to the 
usual type of the American gentleman. One of them notably 
had a refined sense of humor, as well as uncommon acuteness of 
observation.” 

The line between superior and inferior races, as distinguished 
from civilizations, appears to be the line between the temperate 
and tropical zones. The two belts of earth between the tropics 
of Capricorn and Cancer and the arctic and antarctic circles have 
been the areas where man in his struggle for existence developed 
the qualities of mind and will—the ingenuity, self-reliance, self- 
control, strenuous exertion, and will power—which make him 

1 See United States Department of Labor, Report on Hawaii, p. 715. 

2 See an interesting article by H. W. Conn, a leading authority on 
biology, entitled “Social Heredity,” in The Independent, January 21, 1904. 

8 “Religions of Primitive People,” p. 15. 


no 


AMERICANIZATION 


befitting the modern industrial civilization. But in the tropics 
these qualities are less essential, for where nature lavishes food 
and winks at the neglect of clothing and shelter, there ignorance, 
superstition, physical prowess and sexual passion have an equal 
chance with intelligence, foresight, thrift and self-control. The 
children of all the races of the temperate zones are eligible to the 
highest American civilization, and it only needs that they be 
“caught” young enough. This much cannot be said for the chil¬ 
dren of the tropical zone. Amalgamation is their door to as¬ 
similation. Frederick Douglass, Booker Washington, Professor 
DuBois are an honor to any race, but they are mulattoes. 4 

Before we can intelligently inquire into the agencies of Amer¬ 
icanization we must first agree on what we mean by American¬ 
ization. I can think of no comprehensive and concise description 
equal to that of Abraham Lincoln: “Government of the people, 
by the people, for the people.” This description should be applied 
not only to the state but to other institutions. In the home 
it means equality of husband and wife; in the church it 
means the voice of the laity; in industry the participation of the 
workmen. 

Unhappily, it cannot be said that Lincoln’s description has 
ever been attained. It is the goal which he and others whom we 
recognize as true Americans have pointed out. Greater than any 
other obstacle in the road towards that goal have been our race 
divisions. In the southern states, where race division is most 
extreme, one-half the population seems to be permanently ex¬ 
cluded from a share in government. In the great cities a political 
bossism allied to plutocracy has gained immunity from successful 
attack because the people cannot continuously unite across the 
lines of race and nationality. The Americanism of the rural 
districts, setting itself against the foreignism of the cities, leaves 
the state and national governments to the political machines and 
great financial interests. Government for the people depends on 
government by the people, and this is difficult where the people 
cannot think and act together. Such is the problem of Amer¬ 
icanization. 

In the earlier days the most powerful agency of assimilation 
was frontier life. The pioneers “were left almost entirely to 

4 A. H. Stone, ‘‘The Mulatto Factor in the Race Problem,” Atlantic 
Monthly, May, 1903. 


AMERICANIZATION 


hi 


their own resources in this great struggle. They developed a 
spirit of self-reliance, a capacity for self-government, which are 
the most prominent characteristics of the American people.”* 
Frontier life includes pioneer mining camps, as well as pioneer 
farming.® 

Next to the frontier the farms of America are the richest 
field of assimilation. Here the process is sometimes thought to 
be slower than it is in the cities, but anyone who has seen it un¬ 
der both conditions cannot doubt that if it is slower it is more 
real. In the cities the children are more thoroughly brought un¬ 
der the influence of the public schools, but more profound and 
lasting than the education of the schools is the education of the 
street and community. The work of the schools in a great city 
like New York cannot be too highly praised, and without such 
work the future of the immigrant’s child would be dark. 5 6 7 But it 
is the community that gives him his actual working ideals and 
his habits and methods of life. And in a great city, with its 
separation of classes, this community is the slums, with its 
mingling of all races and the worst of the Americans. He sees 
and knows surprisingly little of the America that his school books 
describe. The American churches, his American employers, are 
in other parts of the city, and his Americanization is left to the 
school teacher, the policeman, and the politician, who generally 
are but one generation before him from Europe. But on the 
farm he sees and knows all classes, the best and the worst, and 
even where his parents strive to isolate their community and to 
preserve the language and the methods of the old country, only 
a generation or two is required for the surrounding American¬ 
ism to permeate. 

The above refers to the children of immigrants. The immi¬ 
grants themselves are too old for Americanization, especially 
when they speak a non-English language. To them the labor 
union is at present the strongest Americanizing force. The union 
teaches them self-government through obedience to officers 
elected by themselves. It frees them from the spirit of sub¬ 
servience and gives them their primary lesson in democracy, 
which is liberty through law. 8 

5 Mayo-Smith, “Assimilation of Nationalities,” page 440. 

6 Shinn. “Mining Camps.” See bibliography. 

7 See World’s Work, July, 1903, “New Citizens for the Republic.” 

8 See article on “Americanization Through Labor Unions,” in The 
World Today, October, 1903- 


112 


AMERICANIZATION 


THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM—THE 
IMMIGRANT 

Jane Addams 

FOUNDER OF HULL HOUSE, CHICAGO 

Curiously enough, however, as soon as the immigrant situa¬ 
tion is frankly regarded as an industrial one, the really political 
nature of the essentially industrial situation is revealed in the 
fact that trade organizations which openly concern themselves 
with the immigration problem on its industrial side quickly take 
on the paraphernalia and machinery which have hitherto asso¬ 
ciated themselves with governmental life and control. The 
trades unions have worked out all over again local autonomy 
with central councils and national representative bodies and the 
use of the referendum vote. They also exhibit many features 
of political corruption and manipulation, but they still contain 
the purifying power of reality, for the trades unions are engaged 
in a desperate struggle to maintain a standard wage against the 
constant arrival of unskilled immigrants at the rate of three- 
quarters of a million a year, at the very period when the elabora¬ 
tion of machinery permits the largest use of unskilled men. The 
first real lesson in self-government to many immigrants has come 
thru the organization of labor unions, and it could come in no 
other way, for the union alone has appealed to their necessities. 
And out of these primal necessities one sees the first indication 
of an idealism of which one at moments dares to hope that it 
may be sturdy enough and sufficiently founded upon experience 
to make some impression upon the tremendous immigration sit¬ 
uation. 

****** 

It may be owing to the fact that the workingman is brought 
in direct contact with the situation as a desperate problem of 
living wage or starvation; it may be that wisdom is at her old 
trick of residing in the hearts of the simple, or that this new 
idealism,.which is that of a reasonable life and labor, must from 
the very nature of things proceed from those who labor; or pos¬ 
sibly because amelioration arises whence it is so sorely needed; 
but certainly it is true that, while the rest of the country talks 
of assimilation as if we were a huge digestive apparatus, the man 


AMERICANIZATION 


n 3 

with whom the immigrant has come most sharply into compete 
tion has been forced into fraternal relations with him. 

All the peoples of the world have become part of our tribunal, 
and their sense of pity, their clamor for personal kindness, their 
insistence upon the right to join in our progress, cannot be dis¬ 
regarded. The burdens and sorrows of men have unexpectedly 
become intelligible and urgent to this nation, and it is only by 
accepting them with some magnanimity that we can develop the 
larger sense of justice which is becoming world-wide and is lying 
in ambush, as it were, to manifest itself in governmental rela¬ 
tions. 

To be afraid of it is to lose what we have. A government 
has always received feeble support from its constituents as soon 
as its demands appear childish or remote. Citizens inevitably 
neglect or abandon civic duty when it no longer embodies their 
genuine desires. It is useless to hypnotize ourselves by unreal 
talk of colonial ideals and patriotic duty toward immigrants as 
if it were a question of passing a set of resolutions. The nation 
must be saved by its lovers, by the patriots who possess adequate 
and contemporaneous knowledge. A commingling of racial 
habits and national characteristics in the end must rest upon the 
voluntary balance and concord of many forces. 

We may with justice demand from the scholar the philosophic 
statement, the reconstruction, and reorganization of the knowl¬ 
edge which he possesses, only if we agree to make it over into 
healthy and direct expressions of free living. 

Recent Immigration : a Field Neglected by the Scholar. Educational 
Review. 29:245-63. March, 1905. Chicago University Record. 

WHO ARE THE MOUNTAINEERS? 

Horace Kephart 

MOUNTAINEER, AUTHOR, STUDENT OF AMERICAN WOODCRAFT 

The southern mountaineers are pre-eminently a rural folk. 
When the twentieth century opened, only four per cent of them 
dwelt in cities of 8,000 inhabitants and upwards. There were 
but seven such cities in all Appalachia—a region larger than 
England and Scotland combined—and these owed their develop¬ 
ment to outside influences. Only 77 out of 186 mountain coun¬ 
ties had towns of 1,000 and upwards. 


AMERICANIZATION 


114 

Our highlanders are the most homogeneous people in the 
United States. In 1900, out of a total population of 3>039,845> 
there were only 18,617 of foreign birth. This includes the cities 
and industrial camps. Back in the mountains, a man using any 
other tongue than English, or speaking broken English, was re¬ 
garded as a freak. Nine mountain counties of Virginia, four 
of West Virginia, fifteen of Kentucky, ten of Tennessee, nine 
of North Carolina, eight of Georgia, two of Alabama, and one 
of South Carolina had less than ten foreign-born residents each. 
Three of them had none at all. 

Compare the North Atlantic states. In this same census 
year, 57 per cent of their people lived in cities of 8,000 and up¬ 
wards. As for foreigners—the one city of Fall River, Mass., 
with 104,863 inhabitants, had 50,042 of foreign birth. 

The mountains proper are free not only from foreigners but 
from negroes as well. There are many blacks in the larger val¬ 
leys and towns, but throughout most of Appalachia the popula¬ 
tion is almost exclusively white. In 1900, Jackson County, Ky., 
(the same that sent every one of its sons into the Union army 
who could bear arms), had only nineteen negroes among 10,542 
white; Johnson County, Ky., only one black resident among 
13,729 white; Dickenson County, Va., not a single negro within 
its borders. 

In many mountain settlements negroes are not allowed to 
tarry. It has been assumed that this prejudice against colored 
folk had its origin far back in the time when “poor whites” 
found themselves thrust aside by competition with slave labor. 
This is an error. Our mountaineers never had to compete with 
slavery. Few of them knew, anything about it except from hear¬ 
say. Their dislike of negroes is simply an instinctive racial 
antipathy, plus contempt for anyone who submits to servile condi¬ 
tions. A neighbor in the Smokies said to me: “I b’lieve treatin’ 
niggers squar. The Bible says they’re human—leastways some 
says it does—and so there’d orter be a place for them. But it’s 
some place else —not around me! ” That is the whole thing in a 
nutshell. 

Here, then, is Appalachia: one of the great land-locked areas 
of the globe, more English in speech than Britain itself, more 
American by blood than any other part of America, encompassed 
by a high-tensioned civilization, yet less affected to-day by 


AMERICANIZATION 


US 

modern ideas, less cognizant of modern progress, than any other 
part of the English-speaking world. 

Of course, such an anomaly cannot continue. Commercial¬ 
ism has discovered the mountains at last, and no sentiment, how¬ 
ever honest, however hallowed, can keep it out. The transfor¬ 
mation is swift. Suddenly the mountaineer is awakened from 
his eighteenth-century bed by the blare of steam whistles and 
the boom of dynamite. He sees his forests leveled and whisked 
away; his rivers dammed by concrete walls and shot into tur¬ 
bines that outpower all the horses in Appalachia. He is dazed 
by electric lights, nonplussed by speaking wires, awed by vast 
transfers of property, incensed by rude demands. Aroused, 
now, and wide-eyed, he realizes with sinking heart that here is 
a sudden end of that Old Dispensation under which he and his 
ancestors were born, the beginning of a New Order that heeds 
him and his neighbors not a whit. 

All this insults his conservatism. The old way was the es¬ 
tablished order of the universe: to change it is fairly impious. 
What is the good of all this fuss and fury? That fifty-story 
building they tell about, in their big city—what is it but another 
Tower of Babel? And these silly, stuck-up strangers who brag 
and brag about “modern improvements”—what are they, under 
their fine manners and fine clothes? Hirelings all. Shrewdly 
he observes them in their relations to each other.— 

“Each man is some man’s servant; every soul 
Is by some other’s presence quite discrowned.’’ 

Proudly he contrasts his ragged self: he who never has ac¬ 
knowledged a superior, never has taken an order from living 
man, save as a patriot in time of war. And he turns upon his 
heel. 

Yet, before he can fairly credit it as a reality, the lands 
around his own home are bought up by corporations. All about 
him, slash, crash, go the devastating forces. His old neighbors 
vanish. New and unwelcome ones swarm in. He is crowded, 
but ignored. His hard-earned patrimony is robbed of all that 
made it precious: its home-like seclusion, independence, dignitv. 
He sells out, and moves away to some uninvaded place where 
he “will not be bothered.” 

“I don’t like these improvements,” said an old mountaineer to 


ii6 


AMERICANIZATION 


me. “Some calls them ‘progress/ and says they put money to 
circulatin’. So they do; but who gits it?” 

There is a class of highlanders more sanguine, more adapt¬ 
able, that welcomes all outsiders who come with skill and cap¬ 
ital to develop their country. Many of these are shrewd traders 
in merchandise or in real estate, or they are capable foremen 
who can handle native labor much better than any strangers 
could. Such men naturally profit by the change. 

Others, deluded by what seems easy money, sell their little 
homesteads for just enough cash to set them up as laborers in 
town or camp. Being untrained to any trade, they can get only 
the lowest wages, which are quickly dissipated in rent and in 
foods that formerly they raised for themselves. Unused to con¬ 
tinuous labor, they irk under its discipline, drop out, and fall 
into desultory habits. Meantime false ambitions arise, especially 
among the womenfolk. Store credit soon runs such a family in 
debt. 

“When I was a young man,” said one of the neighbors, “the 
traders never thought of bringin’ meal in here. If a man run 
out of meal, why, he was out, and he had to live on taters or 
somethin’ else. Nowadays we dress better, and live better, but 
some other feller allers has his hands in our pockets.” 

Then it is “good-by” to the old independence that made such 
characters manly. Enmeshed in obligations that they cannot 
meet, they struggle vainly, brood hopelessly, and lose that dear¬ 
est of all possessions, their self-respect. Servility is literal hell 
to a mountaineer, and when it is forced upon him he turns into 
a mean, underhanded, slinking fellow, easily tempted into crime. 

The curse of our invading civilization is that its vanguard 
is composed of men who care nothing for the welfare of the 
people they dispossess. A northern lumberman admitted to me, 
with frankness unusual in his class, that “All we want here is to 
get the most we can out of this country, as quick as we can, and 
then get out.” This is all we can expect of those who exploit 
raw materials, or of manufactures that employ only cheap labor. 
Until we have industries that demand skilled workmen, and until 
manual training schools are established in the mountains, we 
may look for deterioration, rather than betterment, of those 
highlanders who leave their farms. 

All who know the mountaineers intimately have observed 
that the sudden inroad of commercialism has a bad effect upon 


AMERICANIZATION 


ii 7 

them. As President Frost says, “Ruthless change is knocking 
at the door of every mountain cabin. The jackals of civiliza¬ 
tion have already abused the confidence of many a highland 
home. The lumber, coal, and mineral wealth of the mountains 
is to be possessed, and the unprincipled vanguard of commercail- 
ism can easily debauch a simple people. The question is 
whether the mountain people can be enlightened and guided so 
that they can have a part in the development of their own coun¬ 
try, or whether they must give place to foreigners and melt away 
like so many Indians.” ' 

It is easy to say that the fittest will survive. But the fittest 
for what? Miss Miles answers: “I have heard it said that 
civilization, when it touches the people of the backwoods, acts 
as a useful precipitant in thus sending the dregs to the bottom. 
As a matter of fact, it is only the shrewder and more de¬ 
termined, not the truly fit, that survive the struggle. Among 
these very submerged ones, reduced to dependence on an alien 
people, there are thousands who inherit the skill of their fore¬ 
fathers who fashioned their own locks, musical instruments, and 
guns. And these very women who are breaking their health 
and spirit over a thankless tub of suds ought surely to turn their 
talents to better account, ought to be designing and weaving cov¬ 
erlets and Roman-striped rugs, or ‘piecing’ the quilt patterns 
now so popular. Need these razors be used to cut grindstones? 
Must this free folk who are in many ways the truest Americans 
of America be brought under the yoke of caste division, to the 
degradation of all their finer qualities, merely for lack of the 
right work to do?” 

“People who have been among the southern mountaineers 
testify,” says Mr. Fox, “that, as a race, they are proud, sensitive, 
hospitable, kindly, obliging in an unreckoning way that is almost 
pathetic, honest, loyal, in spite of their common ignorance, pov¬ 
erty, and isolation; that they are naturally capable, eager to 
learn, easy to uplift. Americans to the core, they make the 
southern mountains a storehouse of patriotism; in themselves 
they are an important offset to the Old World outcasts whom we 
have welcomed to our shores; and they surely deserve as much 
consideration from the nation as the negroes, or as the heathen, 
to whom we give millions.” 

President Frost, of Berea College, who has worked among 
these people for nearly a lifetime,and has helped to educate 


ii8 


AMERICANIZATION 


their young folks by thousands, says: ‘‘It does one’s heart good 
to help a young Lincoln who comes walking in perhaps a three- 
days’ journey on foot, with a few hard-earned dollars in his 
pocket and a great eagerness for the education he can so faintly 
comprehend. (Scores of our young people see their first rail¬ 
road train at Berea.) And it is a joy to welcome the mountain 
girl who comes back after having taught her first school, bring¬ 
ing the money to pay her debts and buy her first comfortable 
outfit—including rubbers and suitable underclothing—and per¬ 
haps bringing with her a younger sister. Such a girl exerts a 
great influence in her school and mountain home. An enthus¬ 
iastic mountaineer described an example in this wise: ‘I tell 
yeou hit teks a moughty resolute gal ter do what that thar gal 
has done. She got, I reckon, about the toughest deestric’ in the 
ceounty, which is sayin' a good deal. An’ then fer boardin-place 
—well, there warn’t much choice. There was one house, with 
one room. But she kep right on, an’ yeou would hev thought 
she was havin’ the finest kind of a time, ter look at her. An’ 
then the last day, when they was sayin' their pieces and sich, 
some sorry fellers come in thar full o’ moonshine an’ shot their 
revolvers. I’m a-tellin’ ye hit takes a moughty resolute gal.” 

The great need of our mountaineers to-day is trained leaders 
of their own. The future of Appalachia lies mostly in the hands 
of those resplute native boys and girls who win the education 
fitting them for such leadership. Here is where the nation at 
large is summoned by a solemn duty. And it should act quickly, 
because commercialism exploits and debauches quickly. But the 
schools needed here are not ordinary graded schools. They 
should be vocational schools that will turn out good farmers, 
good mechanics, good housewives. Meantime let a model farm 
be established in every mountain county showing how to get the 
most out of mountain land. Such object lessons would speedily 
work an economic revolution. It is an economic problem, fun¬ 
damentally, that the mountaineer has to face. 

Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 378-395- New York. Outing Pub¬ 
lishing Co., 1913. 


AMERICANIZATION 


119 

THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES 

W. E. Burghardt DuBois. 

STUDENT, EDITOR, RACE EDUCATOR, LEADER 

There were half a million slaves in the confines of the United 
States when the Declaration of Independence declared “that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.” The land that thus magniloquently 
heralded its advent into the family of nations had supported the 
institution of slavery for one hundred and fifty-seven years and 
was destined to cling to it eighty-seven years longer. 

The greatest experiment in Negro slavery as a modern in¬ 
dustrial system was made on the mainland of North America 
and in the confines of the present United States. And this ex¬ 
periment was on such a scale and so long-continued that it is 
profitable for study and reflection. 

The importation of Negroes to the mainland of North America 
was small until the British got the coveted privilege of the 
Asiento in 1713. Before that Northern States like New York 
had received some slaves from the Dutch, and New England 
had early developed a trade by which she imported a number of 
house servants. Ships went out to the African coast with rum, 
sold the rum and brought the slaves to the West Indies; there 
they exchanged the slaves for sugar and molasses and brought 
the molasses back to New England, to be made into rum for 
further exploits. After the Asiento treaty the Negro population 
increased in the eighteenth century from about 50,000 in 1710 
to 220,000 in 1750 and to 462,000 in 1770. When the colonies be¬ 
came independent, the foreign slave trade was soon made illegal; 
but illicit trade, annexation of territory and natural increase 
enlarged the Negro population from a little over a million at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century to four and a half millions 
at the outbreak of the Civil War and to about ten and a quarter 
millions in 1914. 

The present so-called Negro population of the United States 
is: 

1. A mixture of the various African population, Bantu, 


120 


AMERICANIZATION 


Sudanese, west-coast Negroes, some dwarfs, and some traces of 
Arab, Berber, and Semitic blood. 

2. A mixture of these strains with the blood of white Amer¬ 
icans through a system of concubinage of colored women in 
slavery days, together with some legal intermarriage. 

The figures as to mulattoes have been from time to time offi¬ 
cially acknowledged to be understatements. Probably one-third of 
the Negroes of the United States have distinct traces of white 
blood. This blending of the races has led to interesting human 
types, but racial prejudice has hitherto prevented any scientific 
study of the matter. In general the Negro population in the 
United States is brown in color, darkening to almost black and 
shading off in other directions to yellow and white, and is indis¬ 
tinguishable in some cases from the white population. 

The transplanting of the Negro from his African clan life to 
the West Indian plantation was a social revolution. Marriage 
became geographical and transient, while women and girls were 
without protection. 

The private home as a self-protective, independent unit did 
not exist. That powerful institution, the polygamous African 
home, was almost completely destroyed, and in its place in 
America arose sexual promiscuity, a weak community life, with 
common dwelling, meals, and child nurseries. The internal slave 
trade tended further to weaken natural ties. A small number 
of favored house servants and artisans were raised above this— 
had their private homes, came in contact with the culture of the 
master class, and assimilated much of American civilization. 
This was, however, exceptional; broadly speaking, the greatest 
social effect of American slavery was to substitute for the 
polygamous Negro home a new polygamy less guarded, less 
effective, and less civilized. 

At first sight it would seem that slavery completely destroyed 
every vestige of spontaneous movement among the Negroes. 
This is not strictly true. The vast power of the priest in the 
African state is well known; his realm alone—the province of 
religion and medicine—remained largely unaffected by the plan¬ 
tation system. The Negro priest, therefore, early became an im¬ 
portant figure on the plantation and found his function as the 
interpreter of the supernatural, the comforter of the sorrowing, 
and as the one who expressed, rudely but picturesquely, the 
longing and disappointment and resentment of a stolen people. 


AMERICANIZATION 


121 


From such beginnings arose anu spread with marvelous rapidity 
the Negro church, the first distinctively Negro American social 
institution. It was not at first by any means a Christian church, 
but a mere adaptation of those rites of fetish which in America 
is termed obe worship or “voodooism.” Association and mission¬ 
ary effort soon gave these rites a veneer of Christianity and 
gradually, after two centuries, the church became Christian, with 
a simple Calvinistic creed, but with many of the old customs 
still clinging to the^services. It is this historic fact, that the 
Negro church of today bases itself upon the sole surviving social 
institution of the African fatherland, that accounts for its ex¬ 
traordinary growth and vitality. 

Up through this American feudalism the Negro began to rise. 
He learned in the eighteenth century the English language, he 
began to be identified with the Christian church, he mingled his 
blood to a considerable extent with the master class. The house 
servants particularly were favored, in some cases receiving edu¬ 
cation, and the number of free Negroes gradually increased. 

Present-day students are often puzzled at the apparent con¬ 
tradiction of Southern slavery. One hears, on the one hand, of 
the staid and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations 
with lord and retainers, ease and happiness; on the other hand 
one hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridled power and wide 
oppression of men. Which is the true picture? The answer is 
simple: both are true. They are not opposite sides of the same 
shield; they are different shields. They are pictures, on the one 
hand, of house service in the great country seats and in the towns, 
and on the other hand of the field laborers who raised the great 
tobacco, rice, and cotton crops. We have thus not carelessly 
mixed pictures of what were really different kinds of slavery, 
but of that which represented different degrees in the develop¬ 
ment of the economic system. House service was the older 
feudal idea of personal retainership, developed in Virginia and 
Carolina in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It had all 
the advantages and disadvantages of such a system; the advan¬ 
tage of strong personal tie and the disadvantage of unyielding 
caste distinctions, with the resultant immoralities. At its worst, 
however, it was a matter primarily of human relationships. 

Out of this older type of slavery in the northern South there 
developed, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the 
southern South the type of slavery which corresponds to the 


122 


AMERICANIZATION 


modern factory system in its worst conceivable form. It repre¬ 
sented production of a staple product on a large scale; between 
the owner and laborer were interposed the overseer and the 
drivers. The slaves were whipped and driven to a mechanical 
task system. Wide territory was needed, so that at last absentee 
landlordship was common. It was this latter type of slavery that 
marked the cotton kingdom, and the extension of the area of 
this system southward and westward marked the aggressive 
world—conquering visions of the slave barons. On the other 
hand it was the milder and far different Virginia house service 
and the personal retainership of town life in which most white 
children grew up; it was this which impressed their imaginations 
and which they have so vividly portrayed. The Negroes, how¬ 
ever, knew the other side, for it was under the harsher, heartless 
driving of the fields that fully nine-tenths of them lived. 

There early began to be some internal development and 
growth of self-consciousness among the Negroes: for instance, 
in New England towns Negro “governors” were elected. Ne¬ 
groes voted in those days for instance, in North Carolina until 
1835 the Constitution extended the franchise to every freeman, 
and when Negroes were disfranchised in 1835, several hundred 
colored men were deprived of the vote. In fact, as Albert Bush- 
nell Hart says, “In the colonies freed Negroes, like freed in¬ 
dentured white servants, acquired property, founded families, 
and came into the political community if they had the energy, 
thrift, and fortune to get the necessary property.” 

Beneficial and insurance societies began to appear among 
colored people. Nearly every town of any size in Virginia in 
the early eighteenth century had Negro organizations for caring 
for the sick and burying the dead. As the number of free ne¬ 
groes increased, particularly in the North, these financial socie¬ 
ties began to be openly formed. One of the earliest was the 
Free African Society of Philadelphia. This eventually became 
the present African Methodist Church, which has today half a 
million members and over eleven million dollars’ worth of 
property. 

Negroes began to be received into the white church bodies 
in separate congregations, and before 1807 there is the record 
of the formation of eight such Negro churches. This brought 
forth leaders who were, usually, preachers in these churches. 
Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Church, 


AMERICANIZATION 


123 


was one; Lot Carey, one of the founders of Liberia, was another. 
In the South, there was John Chavis, who passed through a 
regular course of studies at what is now Washington and Lee 
University. He started a school for young white men in North 
Carolina and had among his pupils a United States senator, sons 
of a chief justice of North Carolina, a governor of the state, 
and many others. He was a full-blooded Negro, but a Southern 
writer says that “all accounts agree that John Chavis was a 
gentleman. He was received socially among the best whites and 
asked to table.” 

In the war of 1812 thirty-three hundred Negroes helped Jack- 
son win the battle of New Orleans, and numbers fought in New 
York State and in the navy under Perry, Channing, and others. 
Phyllis Wheatley, a Negro girl, wrote poetry, and the mulatto, 
Benjamin Banneker, published one of the first American series 
of almanacs. 

In 1890, the South was faced by this question: Are we willing 
to allow the Negro to advance as a free worker, peasant farmer, 
metayer, and small capitalist, with only such handicaps as 
naturally impede the poor and ignorant, or is it- necessary to 
erect further artificial barriers to restrain the advance of the 
Negroes? The answer was clear and unmistakable. The ad¬ 
vance of the freedmen had been too rapid and the South feared 
it; every effort must be made “to keep the Negro in his place” 
as a servile caste. 

To this end the South strove to make the disfranchisement of 
the Negroes effective and final. Up to this time disfranchise¬ 
ment was illegal and based on intimidation. The new laws 
passed between 1890 and 1910 sought on their face to base the 
right to vote on property and education in such a way as to 
exclude poor and illiterate Negroes and admit all whites. In 
fact they could be administered so as to exclude nearly all Ne¬ 
groes. To this was added a series of laws designed publicly to 
humiliate and stigmatize Negro blood: as, for example, separate 
railway cars; separate seats in street cars, and the like; these 
things were added to the separation in schools and churches, 
and the denial of redress to seduced colored women, which had 
long been the custom in the South. All these new enactments 
meant not simply separation, but subordination, caste, humiliation, 
and flagrant injustice. To all this was added a series of labor 
laws making the exploitation of Negro labor more secure. 


124 


AMERICANIZATION 


The reaction of the Negro Americans upon this wholesale and 
open attempt to reduce them to serfdom has been interesting. 
Naturally they began to organize and protest and in some cases 
to appeal to the courts. Then, to their astonishment there arose a 
colored leader, Mr Booker T. Washington, who advised them 
to yield to disfranchisement and caste and wait for greater eco¬ 
nomic strength and general efficiency before demanding full 
rights as American citizens. The white South naturally agreed 
with Mr. Washington, and the white North thought they saw 
here a chance for peace in the racial conflict and safety for their 
Southern investments. 

For a time the colored people hesitated. They respected Mr. 
Washington for shrewdness and recognized the wisdom of his 
homely insistence on thrift and hard work; but gradually they 
came to see more and more clearly that, stripped of political 
power and emasculated by caste, they could never gain sufficient 
economic strength to take their place as modern men. They 
also realized that any lull in their protests would be taken ad¬ 
vantage of by Negro haters to push their caste program. They 
began, therefore, with renewed persistence to fight for their 
fundamental rights as American citizens. The struggle tended 
at first to bitter personal dissension within the group. But wiser 
counsels and the advice of white friends eventually prevailed and 
raised it to the broad level of a fight for the fundamental prin¬ 
ciples of democracy. The launching of the “Niagara Movement” 
by twenty-nine daring colored men in 1905, followed by the for¬ 
mation of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People in 1910, marked an epoch in the advance of the 
Negro. This latter organization, with its monthly organ, The 
Crisis, is now waging a nation-wide fight for justice to Negroes. 
Other organizations, and a number of strong Negro weekly 
papers, are aiding in the fight. What has been the net result of 
this struggle of half a century? 

In 1863 there were about five million persons of Negro 
descent in the United States. Of these, four million and more 
were just being released from slavery. These slaves could be 
bought and sold, could move from place to place only with per¬ 
mission, were forbidden to learn to read or write, and legally 
could never hold property or marry. Ninety per cent were totally 
illiterate, and only one adult in six was a nominal Christian. 

Fifty years later, in 1913, there were in the United States ten 


AMERICANIZATION 


125 


and a quarter million persons of Negro descent, an increase of 
one hundred and five per cent. Legal slavery has been abolished, 
.leaving however, vestiges in debt slavery, peonage, and the con¬ 
vict lease system. The mass of the freedmen and their sons have 

1. Earned a living as free and partially free laborers. 

2. Shared the responsibilities of government. 

3. Developed the internal organization of their race. 

4. Aspired to spiritual self-expression. 

The Negro was freed as a penniless, landless, naked, ignor¬ 
ant laborer. There were a few free Negroes who owned prop¬ 
erty in the South, and a larger number who owned property in 
the North; but ninety-nine per cent of the race in the South 
were penniless field hands and servants. 

To-day there are two and a half million laborers, the major¬ 
ity of whom are efficient wage earners. Above these are more 
than a million servants and tenant farmers; skilled and semi¬ 
skilled workers make another million and at the top of the eco¬ 
nomic column are 600,000 owners and managers of farms and 
businesses, cash tenants, officials, and professional men. This 
makes a total of 5,192,535 colored bread-winners in 1910. 

More specifically these breadwinners include 218,972 farm 
owners and 319,346 cash farm tenants and managers. There 
were in all 62,755 miners, 288,141 in the building and hand trades; 
28,515 workers in clay, glass and stone; 41,739 iron and steel 
workers; 134,102 employees on railways) 62,822 draymen, cab 
drivers, and liverymen; 133,245 in wholesale and retail trade; 
32,170 in the public service, including 29,750 teachers, 17,495 
clergymen, and 4,546 physicians, dentists, trained nurses, etc. 
Finally we must not forget 2,175,000 Negro homes, with their 
housewives, and 1,620,000 children in school. 

Fifty years ago the overwhelming mass of these people were 
not only penniless, but were themselves assessed as real estate. 
By 1875 the Negroes probably had gotten hold of something be¬ 
tween 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 acres of land through their bounties 
as soldiers and the low price of land after the war. By 1880 this 
was increased to about 6,000,000 acres; in 1890 to about 8,000,000 
acres; in 1900 to over 12,000,000 acres. In 1910 this land had 
increased to nearly 20,000,000, a realm as large as Ireland. 

The 120,738 farms owned by Negroes in 1890 increased to 
218,972 in 1910, or eighty-one per cent. The value of these farms 
increased from $179,796,639 in 1900 to $440,992,439 in 1910; Ne- 


126 


AMERICANIZATION 


groes owned in 1910 about 500,000 homes out of a total of 
2,175,000. Their total property in 1900 was estimated at $300,000,- 
000 by the American Economic Association. On the same basis 
of calculation it would be worth to-day not less than 800,000,000 
dollars. 

Despite the disfranchisement of three-fourths of his voting 
population, the Negro to-day is a recognized part of the Amer¬ 
ican government. He holds 7,500 offices in the executive service 
of the nation, besides furnishing four regiments in the army and 
a large number of sailors. In the state and municipal service he 
holds nearly 20,000 other offices, and he furnishes 500,000 of the 
votes which rule the Union. 

In these same years the Negro has relearned the lost art of 
organization. Slavery was the almost absolute denial of initiative 
and responsibility. To-day Negroes have nearly 40,000 churches, 
with edifices worth at least $75,000,000 and controlling nearly 
4,000,000 members. They raise themselves $7,500,000 a year for 
these churches. 

There are 200 private schools and colleges managed and al¬ 
most entirely supported by Negroes, and these and other public 
and private schools have received in 40 years $45,000,000 of Negro 
money in taxes and donations. Five millions a year are raised 
by Negro secret and beneficial societies which hold at least 
$6,000,000 in real estate. Negroes support wholly or in part over 
one hundred old folks’ homes and orphanages, 30 hospitals, and 
500 cemeteries. Their organized commercial life is extending 
rapidly and includes over 22,000 small retail businesses and 40 
banks. 

Above and beyond this material growth has gone the spiritual 
uplift of a great human race. From contempt and amusement 
they have passed to the pity, perplexity, and fear on the part of 
their neighbors, while within their own souls they have arisen 
from apathy and timid complaint to open protest and more and 
more manly self-assertion. Where nine-tenths of them could 
not read or write in i860, to-day over two-thirds can; they have 
300 papers and periodicals, and their voice and expression are 
compelling attention. 

Already in poetry, literature, music, and painting the work of 
Americans of Negro descent has gained notable recognition. 
Instead of being led and defended by others, as in the past, 
American Negroes are gaining their own leaders, their own 


AMERICANIZATION 


127 


voices, their own ideals. Self-realization is thus coming slowly 
but surely to another of the world’s great races, and they are to¬ 
day girding themselves to fight in the van of progress, not simply 
for their own rights as men, but for the ideals of the greater 
world in which they live: the emancipation of women, universal 
peace, democratic government, the socialization of wealth, and 
human brotherhood. 

The Negro . Holt. 1915. Parts of chapter xi. The Negro in the 
United States, pp. 183-231. 


AMERICANIZING THE RURAL NEGRO 

Booker Taliaferro Washington, 1859-1915 

PIONEER NEGRO EDUCATOR, PRINCIPLE, TUSKEGEE NORMAL AND IN¬ 
DUSTRIAL INSTTUTE, TUSKEGEE, ALABAMA 

The first rural Negro communities were started in slavery 
times. They were established by free Negroes, who emigrated 
from the South, in order to escape the hardships of the “Black 
Laws” which, particularly in the latter days of slavery, bore with 
unusual severity upon the class known as “free persons of color.” 
The establishment of the American colony of Liberia, Africa, 
was a result of this desire on the part of free colored people to 
find a place where they might escape some of the indirect bur¬ 
dens of slavery. Liberia, however, merely represented a wide¬ 
spread movement among Negroes, who had escaped slavery, to 
establish homes and communities of their own, not only in 
Africa but wherever freedom was assured them. 

For a number of 3 r ears before emancipation little colonies of 
free Negroes were established in several parts of Canada, and 
in states of the Middle West, especially Ohio, Indiana and Il¬ 
linois, the region which, by the Ordinance of 1787, was dedicated 
forever to freedom. There were colonies of free Negroes es¬ 
tablished at this time in several other states—New Jersey and 
Michigan, for example. After the Civil War was over and Ne¬ 
groes were granted the same rights and the same freedom as 
other citizens these little rural communities tended to break up 
and disperse, but the remnants of them still exist in many parts 
of the country. 

The Negro rural communities which have grown up since 


128 


AMERICANIZATION 


emancipation have had other and different motives for their ex¬ 
istence. They have enerally sprung up as a result of the ef¬ 
forts of Negro farmers to become landowners. 

For the first twenty years of freedom there was no great dis* 
position, so far as I can learn, on the part of Negro farmers to 
become landowners. During this period the Negro people and 
particularly the Negro leaders, were absorbed either in politics or 
in religion, and constructive efforts of the race were chiefly ab¬ 
sorbed in organizing their religious life and building churches. 

After the masses of the Negroes lost the influence in politics, 
which they had exercised directly after the war, there was a 
period of some years of great discouragement. Gradually, how¬ 
ever, it began to dawn upon the more thoughtful members of 
the race that there was hope for them in other directions. 

They found, for example, that in communities where there 
was very little encouragement for a Negro to vote there was 
nothing which prevented him from owning property. They 
learned, also, that where their white neighbors were opposed to 
a Negro postmaster they had not the slightest objection to a Ne¬ 
gro banker. The result was that the leaders of the race began 
to turn their attention to business enterprises, while the masses 
of the people were learning to save their money and buy land. 

The first Negro bank was established in the latter part of the 
eighties. At the present time there are something over sixty Ne¬ 
gro banks in different parts of the United States. In the mean¬ 
time the Negro farmers, particularly in recent years, have been 
getting hold of the land on which they work. There are, for ex¬ 
ample, at least three counties in the South in each of which Ne¬ 
groes own and pay taxes on something like fifty or sixty 
thousand acres. In Louisa County, Virginia, Negroes own 53,- 
268 acres; in Liberty County, Georgia, they own 55,048 and in 
Macon County, Alabama, Negroes pay taxes on 61,689 acres of 
land. 

The first rural Negro communities that were established after 
the war grew up almost invariably around a little country church. 
The church was at this time the center around which everything 
revolved. It was in fact the only distinctively Negro institution 
that existed. It was in the church or, perhaps, in the grove sur¬ 
rounding it, that the political meetings were held in the days 
when the masses of the people were still engaged in politics. 
After politics had ceased, to some extent, to be a live interest 


AMERICANIZATION 


I2Q 


the church still remained the center of the intellectual, as well as 
of the religious life of the people. 

In more recent years, in many parts of the country, the school 
has, to a large extent, taken the place of the church as the center 
of life in the rural districts. In the early years of freedom the 
place of every individual was fixed in the community by the fact 
that he supported either the Baptist or the Methodist denomina¬ 
tion. At present, however, the management and welfare of the 
school occupies, in many parts of the country at least, as large a 
part of the interest and attention of the community as the 
church. 

In many cases the people have united to tax themselves, in 
order to build schoolhouses and to lengthen the school terms. 
Most of the efforts made by outside agencies, like the Anna F. 
Jeanes Fund, to improve the rural public schools have been di¬ 
rected to bringing the work of the school into closer relations 
with the practical interests of the rural communities. 

Although in the Southern States the school officials are invari¬ 
ably white men, the Negro communities frequently elect trustees 
of their own. These colored trustees have no legal standing, but 
the conduct of the school is very largely in their hands and in 
the hands of the “patrons,” that is to say those individuals in the 
community who contribute something to the support of the 
schools. 

On the whole, I believe that the control which, in this indirect 
way, Negroes have come to exercise over their own schools has 
had a good influence not only on the people, but also upon the 
schools. It has introduced a new interest into the life of the 
community. There is more to do and to think about than there 
used to be, and I believe I can safely say that there is a greater 
disposition among the people, in spite of the attraction of the 
city, to settle down upon the land and make themselves at home 
in the country districts. 

As soon as a certain number of these schools were established 
advertisements were inserted in the colored newspapers through¬ 
out the South advertising the fact that land could be purchased 
in small tracts near an eight months’ school. Very soon the ad¬ 
vertisements began to attract attention. Colored farmers began 
to move in from the adjoining counties. Many of them came to 
obtain the advantages of a good country school for their chil¬ 
dren. Others came not merely for this purpose but to buy land. 


130 


AMERICANIZATION 


The effect was to bring in a more* enterprising class of Negro 
farmers and to increase the price of land. 

Meanwhile a little farmers’ newspaper, The Messenger, as it 
was called, had been started for the purpose of organizing the 
county, stirring up interest in the improvement of the schools 
and stimulating the efforts of the farmers to improve their 
methods of farming. The preachers and teachers of the county 
organized an association for the purpose of pushing forward the 
movement. Demonstration plots were established in the neigh¬ 
borhood of the schools and, under the direction of the United 
States Demonstration Agent, the teachers began teaching farm¬ 
ing in the schools. The preachers encouraged the movement 
from the pulpit and The Messenger, the farmers’ newspaper I 
have referred to, made an effort to report every step that was 
taken, in any part of the county, looking to the education and 
general improvement of the people. 

Through this paper the farmers of the county were brought 
into closer touch with the work of the Institute and the influence 
of the school upon the community was strengthened and deep¬ 
ened. In fact, it would not be far from the truth to say that 
the Negro communities in Macon County have made more prog¬ 
ress during the last five years than they did during the previous 
twenty-five. 

The work which was attempted on a small scale in Macon 
County, Alabama, has been undertaken in a larger way in Vir¬ 
ginia where the state has created a state supervisor or superin¬ 
tendent of Negro schools, whose task has been to co-operate with 
and to encourage and direct the Negro people of the state in 
their efforts to improve the conditions of the rural schools. More 
than this, under the leadership of Major R. R. Moton of Hamp¬ 
ton, what is called an “organization society” has been formed for 
the purpose of bringing about co-operation between the various 
Negro organizations of the state, religious and secular, to improve 
the school system and bring the work of the schools into closer 
touch with the life and practical daily interests of the people. 

The Rural Negro Community. Annals American Academy of Political 
and Social Science. 40:81-9. March ’1 2. 


AMERICANIZATION 


131 


SIGNS OF GROWING COOPERATION 

Robert R. Moton, 

PRINCIPAL OF TUSKEEGEE INSTITUTE, FORMERLY COMMANDANT, 
HAMPTON INSTITUTE 

In a meeting held recently in Virginia an old colored preacher 
in opening the service prayed thus:—“O God of all races, will 
you please, Sir, come in and take charge of de min’s of all dese 
yere white people and fix dem so dat dey’ll know an’ understan’ 
dat all of we color’d folks is not lazy, dirty, dishones’ an’ no 
’count, an’ help dem, Lord, to see dat most of us is prayin, work- 
in’ and strivin’ to get some land, some houses and some ed’cation 
for ourselves an’ our chilun, an’ get true ’ligion, an’ dat most 
every Negro in Northampton County is doin’ his lebel bes’ to make 
frien’s and get along wid de white folks. Help dese yere white 
folks, O Lord, to understan’ dis thing. Lord, while You is takin’ 
charge of de min’s of dese white people don’t pass by de color’d 
folks for dey is not perfec’—dey needs You as de white folks do. 
Open de Negro’s blin’ eyes dat he may see dat all of de white 
folks are not mean an’ dishonest an’ prejudice’ against de color’d 
folks; dat dere is hones’, hard-workin, jus’ and God-fearin’ white 
folks in dis yere community who are tryin’ the best’ dey know 
how, wid de cir’umstances against dem, to be fair in dere dealin’s 
wid de color’d folks, and help dem to be ’spectable men an’ 
women. Help us, Lord, black and white to understan’ each other 
more eve’y day.” 

The prayer of this old colored man expresses in a crude, but 
effective fashion the feeling and desires of the best Negroes and 
the best white people of the South. The sentiment of this prayer 
is becoming more and more universal, and it is actuating as never 
before the best thought and the highest aspirations of our South¬ 
ern people. This, then, is the first fundamental sign of growing 
cooperation in our South. One who is reasonably familiar with 
Southern conditions cannot but see on every hand unmistakable 
evidences that the two races are growing more and more to un¬ 
derstand and sympathize with each other in the common life 
which they now lead and must of necessity continue to lead. 

It is comparatively easy for a person to become discouraged 
regarding the situation, especially if he is governed by the re¬ 
ports which he sees in the average daily paper. There seems to 


132 


AMERICANIZATION 


be a popular desire, on the part of press dispatches, to emphasize 
the unsavory side of Negro life. 

How often one sees in a paper—front page, first column, in 
glaring headlines a report of some crime alleged to have been 
committed by a black man; whereas, in the very same paper on 
the last page and often in a most insignificant place on that page 
with very modest headlines, one finds a report of a white man 
charged with the same sort of crime! If there is a misunder¬ 
standing between black and white people in any community, often 
in cases where there are less than a half dozen in the disturb¬ 
ance, the papers will report a race riot and give the impression 
that practically all the Negroes and white people in the com¬ 
munity are up in arms against each other. 

This sort of propaganda which has been indulged in for sev¬ 
eral decades and with increasing exaggeration cannot but preju¬ 
dice many people of both races against the Negro and cause the 
casual observer to wonder after all if it is possible for the black 
and white races, whom God in His infinite wisdom and goodness 
has seen fit in His own way to place side by side in large numbers 
on Southern soil, to live helpfully and harmoniously together. 
But there is no real reason for discouragement because this is 
more or less superficial and far from the actual facts of the situ¬ 
ation, for with a sober second thought there comes to mind the 
rank and file of the Negro race—the law-abiding citizens who 
keep out of court, out of the papers, and the earnest, thoughtful 
growing numbers who are working side by side with the best 
white people for the Solution of the race problem. 

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS 

Immediately after the War there was naturally a certain sort 
of paternal relation that existed between the white man and the 
Negro, but this was rather of a patronizing sort. This relation¬ 
ship exists even now to some extent, but such a relationship can¬ 
not long continue. There must come a different and a more 
lasting, and in the long-run, a more wholesome relationship. The 
younger generations of the white and black races have now come 
to the stage of action. Their dealings are less cordial and less 
patronizing, but are more cold and business-like. The Negro 
stands on his manhood. Few favors are asked except such as 
may be reduced to a basis of dollars and cents. 


AMERICANIZATION 


133 


There was developed during the days of slavery a spirit of 
suspicion on the part of the Negro against white people which 
the Reconstruction Period did not by any manner of means lessen 
and which has hampered the Negro, perhaps, more than it has 
the white man. This the Negro is rapidly out-living and that, 
too, is encouraging. Notwithstanding all that has been said 
against the Negro from the press and platform, the real situation 
was never more hopeful and encouraging than it is at present. 
Even the casual observer must see that there is growing a spirit 
of real cooperation and sympathy between the races, and that 
never before has there been a more earnest and sincere effort 
on the part of both races for mutual help and cooperation. There 
is a growing and genuinely honest dispostion on the part of the 
Negro everywhere to seek the advice as well as the assistance 
and cooperation of white people in every movement for the com¬ 
mon good of the Negroes in almost every community. There is 
an increasingly strong feeling on the part of the Negro laborers 
and mechanics for unity and cooperation with similar groups of 
white artisans, and the white unions are seeing more and more 
the necessity for a closer union of the various labor operations, 
and this feeling will continue to grow as men become better 
trained, better educated and better Christians. 

EDUCATIONAL COOPERATION 

In educational matters there is a growing sympathy and spirit 
of cooperation between whites and blacks as never before. The 
Negro is calling on school officials for a fair and equitable dis¬ 
tribution of school funds. They are asking for better schools, 
longer terms, better pay for teachers, and better equipment; in 
many cases the Negroes, out of their own earnings, are buying 
land for the school and often putting up the school houses, some¬ 
times supplementing the pay of the teacher, this generally being 
done with the advice and approval of the local school officials, 
who are responding with a more liberal appropriation for school 
purposes such as was never before witnessed. 

Hampton Institute through its Principal, Dr. Frissell and its 
Trustees, notably the late Robert C. Ogden and through the insti¬ 
tutions that have grown out of Hampton, has done more than 
perhaps any other single institution in making possible the sort 
of cooperation that counts for most in the development of the 
two races here in the South. Hampton Institute more than any 


134 


AMERICANIZATION 


other institution, through its Trustees, Principal and graduates, 
has established a platform upon which Northern men, Southern 
men, black men and white men can work together for the good 
of humanity and the glory of God. More phases of life, more 
creeds and colors are constantly meeting at Hampton for the 
discussion of vital questions and inspiration for greater work 
than in any other place, perhaps, in America. 

Dr. Booker T. Washington has done more than any single 
man to bring the colored people to realize the wisdom and abso¬ 
lute necessity of calling on the white people for advice and aid, 
and I need not say that the response in most cases has been most 
helpful and gratifying, and this attitude on the part of colored 
people has encouraged the white people to take more interest in 
what is going on among colored people in almost every line of 
endeavor. 

We all know of the work of the Jeanes Board through which 
Dr. James H. Dillard has accomplished such splendid service for 
God and humanity, and all know also of the State Superintend¬ 
ents of the rural schools of whom Mr. Jackson Davis was the 
pioneer. These two agencies are linking not only the common 
rural schools in the communities in which they work but are 
doing what is more important—they are linking the two races 
together on the ground of common brotherhood, common needs 
and common sympathy, in the cities as well as in the country. 
Here is a great forward movement toward the cooperation of the 
races. In Savannah, for example, organizations like the Na¬ 
tional Negro Business League are cooperating with the white 
people for a greater and better city. The same is true in Nash¬ 
ville as well as here in Atlanta and in other Southern cities. 

DR. WASHINGTON’S TRIPS IN THE SOUTH 

Dr. Washington, usually under the auspices of the National 
Negro Business League with other prominent colored men, has 
gone on what he calls “Educational Tours” through almost all of 
the Southern States where thousands of people, white and black, 
have gathered. These thousands have gotten from the distin¬ 
guished Negro leader, frank, yet sane, advice as to the best meth¬ 
ods of real cooperation and a more helpful relationship. These 
addresses have had as cordial a response from white as from 
black people. It would be difficult to estimate the value of such 


AMERICANIZATION 


135 


trips in cementing more cordial sympathetic feeling between the 
two races in these States. 

UNIVERSITY RACE COMMISSION 

The unstinted thanks of the Negro of the South are due Dr. 
James H. Dillard who brought into being, at the right time, the 
University Commission on Race Questions, a Commission com¬ 
posed of representatives of all the Southern State universities— 
men who without sentiment, are getting at the real facts regard¬ 
ing the Negro, with a view to helping not merely the Negro but 
the South and Nation as well. The Negro is perfectly willing to 
be judged on his merits by unbiased men, especially when they 
have before them the actual facts. 

SOCIOLOGICAL CONGRESS AT MEMPHIS 

Some of us attended in Memphis what was in some ways the 
most remarkable gathering I have ever witnessed. This was the 
third annual meeting of the Southern Sociological Congress. 
There came together a large body of Southern men representing 
all phases of Southern life, and an equally as interesting and 
representative body of Negroes. These men expressed frankly, 
dispassionately and kindly their views on the race situation, 
offering sane, helpful suggestions as to adequate remedies. Is it 
not a hopeful sign when black men and white men can thus 
counsel together on common problems? 

COOPERATION OF WOMEN 

Our Negro women have shown consummate wisdom and tact 
in securing the cooperation and help of the leading white women 
in their civic movements. The Women’s Civic League of Balti¬ 
more was led by Mrs. S. C. Fernandias, and all of our Virginia 
movements have been and are headed by the most prominent 
and aristocratic white women. And here in Atlanta, Mrs. John 
Hope could not have accomplished what she has so success¬ 
fully achieved had she not secured the help and cooperation of 
the white women. 


NEGRO LEADERSHIP 

The fact that the Negroes are themselves becoming better and 
more perfectly organized and are willing to accept the advice and 
leadership of their own race for racial betterment and civic im- 


13^ 


AMERICANIZATION 


provement makes it all the more easy for the leaders of these 
organizations to throw the weight of their influence on the side 
of sane cooperation with the best element of our Southern white 
people. Few private schools are started in any community but 
the Negroes always ask certain of the leading white people to 
become members of the Board of Trustees. If they do not wish 
to make them real trustees, which means owners of the property, 
they will devise some kind of an advisory Board so as to link 
white people to the movement and thus secure their advice and 
counsel, and finally their assistance and often their influence with 
the County School officials. 

. BUSINESS COOPERATION 

There are in the South to-day about seventy Negro banks 
owned, controlled and operated by Negroes, also numerous Build¬ 
ing & Loan Associations. The Presidents or Cashiers of the 
white banks not only have given advice to their Negro com¬ 
petitors as to the methods of banking, but have opened up their 
first set of books and started them off and in many places over¬ 
looked their methods and work until the Negro banks could get 
on their feet. Only recently a Negro bank in the City of Rich¬ 
mond came near having a “run'’ on it because of some erroneous 
report that was circulated in the community to the effect that 
the bank was in trouble, and several of the leading white banking 
institutions, through their Presidents, told the Negro bank to 
pay all claims promptly, and that they would furnish the neces¬ 
sary money if it did not have the available cash. These banks 
knew that the Negro bank was absolutely safe and solid and they 
had absolute faith in the honesty and integrity of its black Presi¬ 
dent. In almost every community the Negro and white business 
men are on terms of harmony and cooperation; loaning and bor¬ 
rowing and buying and crediting as if both were white or both 
were black. This spirit of business cooperation must and cer¬ 
tainly will continue to grow. 

HEALTH 

It is perhaps along lines of health and sanitation that one finds 
the heartiest cooperation between the white and colored people. 
The Negroes have seen the possibility of a stronger and a more 
appealing plea to the white people for help and cooperation along 
lines of sanitation and hygiene than perhaps along any other line 


AMERICANIZATION 


137 


of racial activity. It is quite as important for the white people 
that the Negroes should be clean and healthful, physically, men¬ 
tally and morally as it is for colored people, and the white people 
see and understand tliis and are willing and glad to lend assis¬ 
tance and cooperation as perhaps in no other movement. Dis¬ 
ease is common to all and though germinated in the Negro cabin, 
is very apt to find its way to the white mansion. Disease like 
vice and crime knows no color line. As a result of the very im¬ 
portant meeting recently held in the City of New Orleans to 
start a health campaign throughout the South, the white people 
are urging the Negroes to enter into this movement and have 
met with very general response from colored people. 

NEGRO ORGANIZATION SOCIETY 

There grew out of our Hampton Negro Conference a move¬ 
ment which we have called the Negro Organization Society of 
Virginia. This movement has for its object the federation of all 
existing organizations in the State of Virginia of whatever kind 
or character, whether religious, benevolent or secret societies, 
social or business conventions, farmers’ conferences and whatnot, 
for the common purpose of general improvement of conditions 
among Negroes throughout the Old Dominion. Its motto is, 
“Better Schools, Better Health, Better Homes, Better Farms’’ 
among colored people. The Negro Organization Society seems 
to have about federated all of these organizations, for never in 
the history of the race has any movement taken hold of the 
various phases of Negro activity as this movement has done, 
and though the movement is only about three years old, it has in¬ 
spired the erection of some twenty-five graded schools in the 
State, to say nothing about improving the equipment and sur¬ 
roundings of two scores more. 

CLEAN-UP DAY 

We have just closed, on the 2nd of this month, what we call 
in Virginia a Clean-up Week. A year ago we had a Clean-up 
Day, but we made it a Clean-up Week this year for the reason 
that it was not convenient in many localities in the State, because 
of storms, etc., to clean up on the day appointed, so we took a 
week. We asked the State Board, as well as the County Boards 
for their cooperation and their help. We prepared a special bul- 


138 


AMERICANIZATION 


letin giving instructions in simple language that could be easily 
understood by colored people as to the best methods of preserv¬ 
ing their health, etc., which we called the “Negro Health Hand¬ 
book.” The State Board of Health published almost as we gave 
it to them, at no expense to the Organization Society, about 
thirty thousand of these books which were put into the hands of 
the school teachers and preachers as well as Negro leaders 
throughout the State, and special sermons, health talks and lec¬ 
tures were delivered throughout the State of Virginia. We 
asked the white people, who employed colored people, to excuse 
and encourage as far as possible their employees to clean up their 
premises, and while we have not the facts for the present year, 
we know that 130,000 people last year devoted the day to general 
cleaning on their premises and disposing of rubbish, white-wash¬ 
ing their houses, outhouses and fences, and destroying breeding 
places for flies and mosquitoes. Perhaps the most significant 
thing accomplished in this health movement is that we got abso¬ 
lutely the cooperation and the backing of the leading papers and 
leading white people of Virginia. The new Hand-book has just 
been published, forty thousand copies of which have been dis¬ 
tributed with results even more far-reaching than a year ago. 

Last November in Richmond, six thousand people gathered to 
hear the reports of the year’s work. Something like a thousand 
of these were white and they represented the leading people of 
the City of Richmond and the State of Virginia. There were 
present and on the platform, the Governor of the State, the 
President of the Richmond Medical College, the Principal of 
Hampton Institute and many leading Negroes, among them, Mrs. 
Maggie L. Walker and such men as Dr. Charles S. Morris and 
Dr. Booker T. Washington. Mrs. B. B. Munford, one of the 
leading white ladies of Virginia, was asked to speak on the sub¬ 
ject “What white people can do to help colored people.” Mrs. 
Munford opened her address with these words. “The best way,” 
she said, “for white people to help colored people is for white 
people to believe in colored people.” When speaking to the 
colored people later in the evening, I said the best way for colored 
people to help white people is for colored people to believe in 
white people. 

It seems to me, then, that if we live up to the spirit of the col¬ 
ored minister and the equally sincere and earnest advice from 
Mrs. Munford, we will have a clew to the maze of race prejudice 


AMERICANIZATION 


139 


and race misunderstanding and a key to the door of Christian 
cooperation and brotherhood, and this is the spirit and purpose 
of this Negro Christian Students’ Conference. 

The New Voice in Race Adjustment; addresses and reports presented 
at the Negro Christian Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, May 14-18, 1914. 
New York Students’ Volunteer Movement, 25 Madison Ave. 1914. p. 161- 
167. 


ASSIMILATING THE INDIAN (1907) 

Albert Shaw 

EDITOR, AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS 

The Indian question was everywhere, west of the Appa¬ 
lachians, a serious and difficult one. However great at times may 
have been the practical injustice of our treatment of particular 
Indian tribes, it is to be remembered that it has been the inten¬ 
tion of the government and of the people as a whole to act fairly 
toward the natives of the country. The tribes with which we 
have had to deal were without agriculture except of the most 
limited sort, were nomadic in their habits, and held their lands 
only in the sense of having a prescriptive right to roam over 
them in their pursuit of wild animals. These Indians were few 
in numbers, and as our forefathers needed lands for orderly set¬ 
tlement, it was necessary for the general government to ex¬ 
tinguish the Indian title by some form of agreement with tribal 
chieftains, based on the analogy of international treaties. 

The process has been a long and continuing one, and it would 
be both interesting and instructive to trace the effect of our con¬ 
tacts and relationships with the Indian as affecting the develop¬ 
ment of what is most distinctive in American citizenship and 
character. Certain Indian traits and qualities—those of physical 
courage and endurance, of silence and stoicism under conditions 
of danger and difficulty, of a certain unassailable personal dignity 
—have for a hundred years unquestionably so affected the Amer¬ 
ican mind as to have entered very deeply into the quality of what 
we may call American personality. If all our pioneers were not 
at some time engaged in Indian fighting, they were all schooled 
in the need of being prepared for it. Outside of our Eastern 
cities, every American boy until within a very recent period has 
been trained in the use of arms, has had some knowledge of wild 


140 


AMERICANIZATION 


animals and woodcraft, and has imbibed something of that per¬ 
sonal initiative, resourcefulness, and capacity for self-directed 
action that could not have come alone from our early provisions 
for democratic equality and universal education. It came in 
large part from the experience of subduing a great continent 
and from the actual or traditional dealings of our people with so 
remarkable a man as the American Indian. 

The obtaining of Indian lands, the carrying on of Indian wars, 
the relocating of Indians on substituted lands farther west, the 
dealing with them on reservations, the attempts to educate them 
and to fit them for modern economic life, and the constant ef¬ 
forts of philanthropists and idealists to give practical effect to 
our national pledges of justice toward the Indians, have pro¬ 
vided us with a series of problems of government and admin¬ 
istration from which we have never at any time been wholly free. 

In Mexico the Indians were never supplanted, but entered into 
the body of citizenship. The result must be a slow and uncer¬ 
tain experiment in the creation of a new nationality of mixed 
racial origin, with the Spanish language as one of its chief unit¬ 
ing bonds. One-fifth of the Mexican population is white, with 
some small infusion of Indian blood. Two-fifths is of thor¬ 
oughly mixed racial character, and about two-fifths almost purely 
Indian. The Indian racial type is evidently destined to prevail 
in Mexico, and the process of race amalgamation will go steadily 
forward. It will be a slow and difficult task, but not an impos¬ 
sible one, to bring this Mexican population up to a much higher 
average standard of intelligence than now prevails. 

Our methods of agricultural settlement and advance almost 
wholly precluded intermarriage. Our conditions were incom¬ 
parably more favorable than those of the Spaniards in Mexico. 
We were dealing with a small number of Indians, relatively 
speaking, and these were of nomadic and savage character, in 
contrast with the fixed nature of the Indian population of Mex¬ 
ico. The French, on the contrary, as hunters and trappers 
among the Canadian Indians of the Northwest, took Indian 
wives with the result that there arose a considerable population 
of French-Indian half-breeds. Here again the number of In¬ 
dians is small when compared with the rapid development of the 
white race, and Canada’s Indian problem will be solved by the 
complete absorption of the Indian population into the composite 


AMERICANIZATION 141 

European stock that is building, up the western Canadian prov¬ 
inces. * ' 

By original agreement in accepting the cession of the Mis¬ 
sissippi Territory from Georgia, the United States government 
had promised to extinguish the Indian land titles and make other 
provision for the Southern red tribes. Out of such agreements 
there resulted the subsequent creation of the so-called “Indian 
Territory/’ whither, from time to time, were removed the Choc¬ 
taws, Creeks, Seminoles, and many other entire or fractional 
tribes. These Indians have been fortunately situated and well 
protected in their rights, and they have adopted so many white 
men into their tribal organization that the full-blooded Indians 
are now in a small minority. A gradual opening up of these In¬ 
dian lands to white settlement resulted some years ago in the 
setting apart of the temporary territory of Oklahoma. We have 
just now witnessed the reunion of Oklahoma and what was left 
of the old Indian Territory, and the admission of the whole un¬ 
der the name of Oklahoma as a State in the Union. 

The process has been marked by great care in the distribution 
of lands in severalty to Indian families and individuals, and by 
various provisions to protect the Indians in all their rights of 
person and property during a future transitional period. All 
these red men of the Indian Territory will enter into full Amer¬ 
ican citizenship, and the process of absorption into the white 
race will go on through intermarriage without hindrance or dif¬ 
ficulty. 

Gradually through long experience we are learning how to 
deal more intelligently with the Indians now segregated in West¬ 
ern reservations. The government’s policy of proving schools 
for the Indian children is constantly growing wiser in its prac¬ 
tical methods, and although aboriginal instincts are stubborn 
and hard to overcome, the inexorable pressure of our white 
population will either absorb the red man or cause his numbers 
to dwindle to the point of extinction. As a subject requiring 
great care and intelligence in administration, the Indian question 
will remain with us for a long time. But as a question affecting 
population and citizenship, it has now' practically disappeared. 
We shall always owe some traits and qualities of national char¬ 
acter to our contact with the North American Indians, but we 
shall assimilate them as a race with results scarcely perceptible. 

Political Problems of American Development, pp. 41-4. New York. 
Columbia University Press. 1907. 


142 


AMERICANIZATION 


AMERICA AND THE INDIAN 

Fayette Avery McKenzie, 

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 

The Indian race is fast reducing the purity of its blood, but 
the Indian blood predominates and holds the succeeding genera¬ 
tion out of the national thought and out of Caucasian social con¬ 
trol. No one is free until he shares in the thought which con¬ 
trols his social life. The mixed blood in custom and tradition is 
Indian, or raceless, which is worse. The Indian has no defined 
status. Taxed, he may or may not be a citizen. If taxed, or 
even if a citizen, he may have few or none of the privileges and 
immunities of a citizen; he may not—ordinarily he does not— 
have the control of his own property. If he is not a citizen, he is 
incompetent to sue or be sued, and is not even a competent wit¬ 
ness in court. Even whole tribes of Indians, every individual of 
which may be nominally a citizen, have no standing in court, and 
have no right to sue for their claims, even in the United States 
Court of Claims. And in the third place, though we spend on an 
average about $100 per year on every Indian child in the gov¬ 
ernment * schools, and demand from them not less than twelve 
years, and sometimes hold them far beyond their majority, yet 
the limited few who get an advanced education do not by gov¬ 
ernment policy go beyond the eighth grade of our public schools. 

Now may I state my thesis? The Indians are not assimilated. 
The assimilation of one race into another and surrounding race 
means bringing them into a full share in the life and thought of 
the latter. They must become constituent parts of the nation. 
They must be units of the new society. John S. Mackenzie, in 
his Introduction to Social Philosophy, has stated the point I wish 
to make in these words: 

“When a people is conquered and subject to another, it ceases 
to be a society, except in so far as it retains a spiritual life of its 
own a part from that of its conquerors. Yet it does not become 
an integral part of the victorious people’s life until it is able to 
appropriate to itself the spirit of that life. So long as the citi¬ 
zens of the conquered state are merely in the condition of atoms 
externally fitted into a system to which they do not naturally 
belong, they cannot be regarded as parts of the society at all. 


AMERICANIZATION 


143 


They are slaves: they are instruments of a civilization of which 
they do not partake. Certainly no more melancholy fate can be¬ 
fall a nation than that it should be subjected to another whose 
life is not large enough to absorb its own. But such a subjection 
cannot be regarded as a form of social growth. It is only one 
of those catastrophes by which a society may be destroyed. In 
so far as there is growth in such a case, it is still a growth from 
within. The conquering society must be able to extend its own 
life outward, so as gradually to absorb the conquered one into 
itself; otherwise the latter cannot be regarded as forming a real 
part of it at all, but at most as an instrument of its life, like 
cattle and trees.” 

I maintain that the Indian has not been incorporated into our 
national life, and cannot be until we radically change a number 
of fundamental things. We must give him a defined status, early 
citizenship and control of his property, adequate education, effi¬ 
cient government and schools, broad and deep religious training, 
and genuine social recognition. We must give him full rights in 
our society and demand from him complete responsibility. . . . 

The Indians today, the great mass of them, are still a broken 
and beaten people, scattered and isolated, cowed and disheart¬ 
ened, confined and restricted, pauperized and tending to degen¬ 
eracy. They are a people without a country, strangers at home, 
and with no place to which to flee. I know that there are thous¬ 
ands of exceptions to these statements, but yet they remain true 
for the great majority. The greatest injustice we do them is to 
consider them inferior and incapable. The greatest barrier to 
their restoration to normality and efficiency lies in their passivity 
and discouragement. We have broken the spring of hope and 
ambition. Can it ever be repaired? 

It is readily to be seen that success will depend upon the ac¬ 
curate utilization or release both of external forces and of inter¬ 
nal forces. The white race through government, industry, and 
religion must do its full part, and the red race through initiative 
and race leadership must also do its full part. I cannot make 
too clear, definite, or positive my beilef that this problem is an 
exceedingly delicate one, and my belief that failure is inevitable 
unless just the right policies are initiated very soon and carried 
on and carried through on the basis of maximum efficiency. 

The simple test of efficiency for us is, are we giving the Indian 
identical or equal opportunity with ourselves to share in and to 


AMERICANIZATION 


144 

control the social consciousness, as well as to share in the privi¬ 
leges, immunities, duties, and obligations of the members of our 
national social body? This is the only goal worth while in as¬ 
similation. I grant you that public opinion is very far from this 
point of view and belief. The question for us is, do sociologists 
agree with it? 

How shall Congress and the nation believe except they be 
taught? And who shall teach except those who have set them¬ 
selves apart to study these things? If the body of sociologists 
could agree upon the theory and would express themselves in¬ 
dividually and collectively, they could exert an immense influence 
at this particular critical moment. The hour is ripe and condi¬ 
tions are propitious for a considerable forward step—if only 
those who can speak with authority will speak. They must se¬ 
cure a consistent governmental practice, and guide public policy 
through the formulation of sound theory and the organization of 
a wise public opinion. 

Long ago I became convinced that the Indian problem could 
not be solved without the initiative and co-operation of the 
Indian himself. When the government has done all that it can, 
there still remains the stimulation and development of internal 
forces to be effected. . Race leadership must be found or the 
race will fail to see the new and better opportunities and will 
sink to rapid ruin. It used to be said that it would be impossible 
for Indians to organize and to hold together. Personal jealousies 
would wreck every endeavor. But the impossible has been done. 
For three years in succession the Indians have met in national 
conference, twice at the Ohio State University, and this year in 
the city of Denver. The conference has grown to a membership 
of nearly a thousand people, half of them Indians, half of them 
bites. Indians only are active members and do all the voting. 
They are publishing a remarkable quarterly journal, and if 
properly supported bid fair to do a work of great significance. 
Their Denver platform is of a quality which will compel national 
attention. Out of great sacrifice and labor this new' force 
emerges. Shall we not welcome it and give it every possible 
support? 

For us, duties divide into those imperative for the moment 
and those which relate to the future. We have our obligations 
toward pending legislation and in the support of the splendid 
efforts of the society of American Indians. 


AMERICANIZATION 


145 


For the future we must set ourselves the task of continuous 
education of the public that every correct endeavor shall be pro¬ 
tected and aided to the point where it achieves its proper and 
logical results. All of us can share in this task. But should 
not some of our great universities go farther? Ought there not 
to be one or more endowments created to establish chairs of 
race development with particular reference to the native race 
of the American continent? We have eminent professors who 
as anthropologists, ethnologists, and historians study the Indian 
of the past. Should we not have men who can devote themselves 
to the problem of the Indian as he now is, and to the problem of 
the means by which he may realize his highest possibilities as a 
citizen and fellow-worker? Such studies should mean vast 
things, not only for the United States, but for the uncounted 
millions of native Americans in the countries to the south of us. 
The nation and the continent call for this great new chair in 
sociology. Do we not owe this to the people we have so largely 
dispossessed? 

The Assimilation of the American Indian. American Journal of So¬ 
ciology. 19:761-72. May ’14. 


OUR SLAVIC FELLOW CITIZENS 

The Question of Assimilation 
Emily Greene Balch 

STUDENT OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS, ECONOMIST 

In a composite people like the American it is inevitable that 
the color of the whole should appear different to those who view 
it from different points. The Englishman is apt to think of the 
United States as literally a new England, a country inhabited in 
the main by two classes—on the one hand descendants of seven¬ 
teenth century English colonists and on the other newly arrived 
foreigners. 

The continental European, on the contrary, is apt to suffer 
from the complementary illusion and to believe that practically all 
Americans are recent European emigrants, mainly, or at least 
largely, from his own country. Frenchmen will state that a large 
proportion of the United States is French, the Germans believe 
that it is mainly German and that one could travel comfortably 
throughout the United States with a knowledge of German alone. 


146 


AMERICANIZATION 


This is very natural. A man sees his own country people flocking 
to America, perhaps partly depopulating great tracts of the 
fatherland; he receives copies of newspapers printed in America 
in his own language; he travels in America and he is feted and 
entertained everywhere by his own countrymen and is shown 
America through their eyes. “I visited for two weeks in Cedar 
Rapids and never spoke anything but Bohemian,” said a Prague 
friend to me. An Italian lady in Boston said to an American 
friend, “You know in Boston one naturally gets so little chance 
to hear any English.” One recalls hearing American friends make 
the corresponding complaint in Paris and Berlin. 

On both sides such exaggerated impressions are very hard to 
shake off. What are the facts? 

At present Negroes, Indians and Mongolians make twelve per 
cent of the population of the United States; foreign born white 
persons make thirteen per cent more, native born white persons 
of wholly or partly foreign parentage twenty-one per cent more, 
leaving a little over one-half (fifty-three per cent) native whites 
of native parentage. 

Of the foreign born and their children, however, over a tenth 
are English in origin and something over a third, including the 
Irish, are English by inherited speech. 

On the other hand, of the fifty-three per cent of persons of 
native white parentage many have non-English blood, some of 
them little and remote, some through all four grandparents. 

Since the statistics of immigration began to be gathered in 
1820, twenty-four millions of immigrants have been counted at 
our ports, of whom, of course, the major part have been neither 
English nor English speaking. 

But the diversity goes back not to 1820, but, as everyone 
knows, to the colonization of the country. Some of the settle¬ 
ments which occupy a place in history, like that of the Swedes in 
Delaware, contributed little blood to the new country, but others 
did; and what with original non-English colonies and the immi¬ 
gration of Germans, Huguenots and, above all, Scotch-Irish 
(movements which relatively to the times were very important) 
it has been estimated that at the time of the Revolution fully one- 
fifth of the population spoke some other language than English 
and that not over one-half were of Anglo-Saxon blood. 

Such estimates are uncertain, and it is to be hoped that the 
publication of the returns for the census of 1700, now under way, 


AMERICANIZATION 


147 


may give us some new light, but at least they help to emphasize 
the fact that pre-Revolutionary America was by no means wholly 
English. 

After the constitution of the Republic, whole populations were 
annexed in situ, adding considerable non-English populations— 
the Spanish of Florida, the Spanish-Mexicans of the southwest 
and California, and the French of Louisiana, Saint Louis and 
the old northwest. 

“But in spite of all temptations 
To belong to other nations,” 

the background and basis of the country is and always has been 
essentially English. 

It was a group of English colonies that united to form the 
Republic. The strain that has predominated, the men that have 
shaped and led the nation, have been mainly English or English 
speaking, from the men of Virginia and Massachusetts in the 
Revolution to the Southerners, New Englanders and “Yankees” 
who supplied the native element in the westward movement. 

Language wields an influence beyond all calculation and lan¬ 
guage has tended to make us open to English thought and com¬ 
paratively inaccessible to other outside currents. 

Not only is English generally spoken throughout the country, 
but it is surprisingly uniform. It has indeed much less dialectical 
variation than the languages of old countries like England and 
Germany, France and Italy. 

Yet granting all that has been said as to the English in 
America, it remains true that the other elements which have made 
a component part of America since the beginning have not been 
either thrust out by the English or simply absorbed or altered 
over by them into their own likeness. There has been thus far 
an amalgam, a fusion, creating a new stock which is no longer 
English, but something distinctive and different, American. Even 
our English speech is not the English of England. Our physique, 
our bearing, still more our tone of mind and spiritual character¬ 
istics not only are distinguishable from the English but bear the 
mark of a national type as distinct perhaps as any. 

****** 

Language is not the only, not even the main channel of influ¬ 
ence. Biologists show us by what natural laws animals take the 
color of their environment. For different reasons, but as surely, 


148 


AMERICANIZATION 


people do the same. Unfortunately from the nature of the case 
the immigrant generally begins at the bottom. His helplessness 
makes him sought for as prey by sharpers and grafters. It is all 
that the immigration officials can do to keep them off him as he 
lands. As soon as he leaves the paternal care of Ellis Island they 
are upon him. Boarding-house runners, shady employment 
agencies, sellers of shoddy wares, hack drivers and expressmen 
beset his way. One hears all sorts of stories of abuses from both 
Americans and Slavs, of bosses who take bribes to give employ¬ 
ment or good chambers in the mine, of ill usage at the hands of 
those who should be officers of justice, of arrests for the sake of 
fees, of unjust fines, of excessive costs paid rather than incur a 
greater expense. The litigiousness of the Slavs is exploited by 
“shyster” lawyers till the immigrants learn wisdom by experi¬ 
ence. 

The suffering and loss are less serious—bad as they are—than 
the evil lesson. The school boy who has been cruelly hazed is 
apt to be cruel to the next crop of victims and in the same way 
fraud and harshness tend to reproduce themselves. 

But it is not only direct ill-treatment that is disastrous. Be¬ 
ginning at the bottom means “living not in America but under 
America,” it means living among the worst surroundings that the 
country has to show, worse, often, than the public would tolerate 
except that “only foreigners” are affected. Yet to foreigners 
they are doubly injurious because coming often with low home 
standards, susceptible, eager and ready to accept what they find 
as the American idea of what should be, they are likely to accept 
and adopt as “all right” whatever they tumble into. I have been 
in places in Pennsylvania where all one can say is that civilization 
had broken down. Being in a city people could not help them¬ 
selves individually as they might have done in the country, and 
the family with the most decent ideas was dragged down by the 
general degradation of the circumstances. From the dance hall 
at one end of the street to the white door bells all up and down 
its length, which openly denoted kitchen barrooms, everything 
smelled of lawlessness. The water was known to be infected 
with typhoid and had to be boiled to be safe—a considerable 
expense and trouble and an excellent reason for drinking other 
things. In the spring the garbage of the winter stood in heaps 
before the doors. The deep clay mud made some streets abso¬ 
lutely impracticable in wet weather. The neighbors mended 
them by pouring on ashes and miscellaneous dumpage. Assaults, 


AMERICANIZATION 


149 


in some cases ending in death, took place night after night, and 
although the identity of the offender was supposed to be known, 
or rather because of that fact, no one dared move in the matter. 
The mayor stood for “running the town wide open,” and was 
said to have investments not only in saloons but in immoral 
resorts. 

This is a composite picture. I saw or heard of each thing on 
the spot, but not all were in the same place. 

Now consider that it is into surroundings like these that we 
put our new employees, that this is the example that we set be¬ 
fore our new fellow-citizens. Under such circumstances the 
Americanization over which we are so complacent is by no means 
all gain and this is true, alas, also in many cases among those 
who do not have to begin at the bottom. 

It is obviously our plain duty to give the immigrant (and 
everyone else) fair treatment and honest government, and to 
maintain conditions making wholesome, decent living possible. 

This is the minimum required at our hands, not by the Golden 
Rule—that asks much more—but by the most elementary ethic of 
civilization. Yet as a matter of fact this simple, fundamental 
thing we cannot do. It is not in our power. 

We can and must do what in the end will be a better thing. 
We must get our new neighbors to work with us for these things. 

I.f their isolation is not to continue, America must come to 
mean to them, not a rival nationality eager to make them forget 
their past and offering them material bribes to induce them to 
abandon their ideals. We must learn to connect our ideals and 
theirs, we must learn, as Miss Addams has demonstrated, to work 
together with them for justice, for humane conditions of living, 
for beauty and for true, not merely formal, liberty. 

Clubs and classes, libraries and evening schools, settlements 
and, above all, movements in which different classes of citizens 
join to bring about specific improvements in government or in 
living conditions are of infinite value as they conduce to this 
higher unity in which we may preserve eveiy difference to which 
men cling with affection without feeling ourselves any the less 
comrades. 

Charities. 9:1163-64. December 7, 1907- 


AMERICANIZATION 


150 


AMERICA’S DUTY TO THE GREEKS 

Thomas Burgess 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN BRANCH COMMITTEE OF THE ANGLICAN 
AND EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCHES UNION 

Do the Greeks stay permanently in America? The statement 
has been made more than once by immigration experts as well 
as laymen that they do not stay. There seems to be an idea, 
found even in United States official quarters, that the Greek 
comes here, makes money, and then goes home, taking his money 
to Greece forever. Unfortunately for poor Greece, this is abso¬ 
lutely the opposite of the truth. Probably most Greeks do come 
to America with this purpose, but very few are ever able to 
accomplish it. The Greek immigrant does not go back, except 
for visits; he comes and stays. This is an important statement 
of fact, and needs to be emphasized for the very reason that it is 
contrary to the general opinion. One cause of this mistaken 
opinion is the plain record of immigration statistics, which show 
a large number of Greeks returning home each year. These 
figures are perfectly correct; but the point is, such returning 
Greeks are off for a visit only—few of these ever stay in Greece. 
Then, too, tourists have reported that they frequently run across 
in Greece Greeks that have returned from America. This also 
is quite true. But those very Greeks, though perhaps they would 
not admit it even to themselves, are in Greece only temporarily; 
inevitably they will come back again to America, and that soon. 
Pretty surely the same is true of the large majority of those 
Greeks who went back to fight in the Balkan War. 

The emigrant from Greece usually borrows money—a mini¬ 
mum $100, his passage fare, and the law-required sum for his 
pocket on landing. Or if he is so unusually lucky as to own this 
sum, it probably is his whole capital. He reaches the promised 
land. He works hard to send back what he borrowed and a good 
deal more to keep those who depend on him at home from 
starving. All this takes a number of years. At last he has saved 
up some money, be it a hundred or a thousand dollars. He goes 
back to Greece and spends most of it. Then taking his family 
if he has one, he returns to America. Why does he return? 
Simply because (ask any of the thousands of Greeks that have 
done so) a Greek who has once lived in this country can- 


AMERICANIZATION 


151 

not stay satisfied in Greece. Here he has made new acquain¬ 
tances; there, after a prolonged absence, he finds strangers. He 
discovers that in Greece his hard-earned money will not enable 
him to set up any kind of business—business is carried on by the 
better classes, not the peasant. In Greece no credit is allowed: 
credit was what enabled him to start and keep running in Amer¬ 
ica. In fact, American business methods will not fit into Greece 
at all. He finds himself no better off than before he first emi¬ 
grated, in fact much worse. And so it is that those immigrants 
who in their disheartenment wish to go home to Greece, cannot; 
and those who in their first flush of success do go, find it im¬ 
possible to stay. This fact is all too sadly known in Greece by 
the leading Greeks here. And still the homeland Greeks, lured 
by the garnished romances of our wonderland, keep building 
their air castles and set sail. And still the bitter disillusionments 
breed either heroes or cynics. Thus far the migration has proven 
irrevocable. The Greeks are here and here to stay. What are 
we Americans going to do about it? 

How to do your part: 

1. Do your utmost to remove in your community the un- 
American and un-Christian prejudice against the Greek. Treat 
him openly yourself as an equal, and thus by your example 
others will be led to treat him as an equal—for in very truth the 
average Greek is the equal of the average American. 

2. Honor and express your honor for and seek to preserve 
that pride of the Greek in the history of his race, the beauty of 
his language, the customs and traditions of his fatherland, the 
orthodoxy of his church—for it is these that have implanted and 
preserved in him patriotism, aspiration for an education, duty 
to family, benevolence for the afflicted, courtesy, temperance. To 
strive to obliterate the ideals of the fatherland that we may turn 
out an unadulterated “American” is worse than foolish. The 
right kind of assimilation will certainly not be accomplished, as 
Professor Balch well expresses it, by the American saying to 
the foreigner, “We two shall be one, and I will be that one.” 
Let us rather preserve for this transplanted tree the goodly por¬ 
tion of its native soil, and add to it that which is good in Amer¬ 
icanism. The combination will furnish to American citizenship, 
nay is already furnishing, a very valuable species. 

3. Cooperate with the Greek leaders and organizations in all 
schemes of uplift for the Greeks—the uplift of the Greek is the 


AMERICANIZATION 


152 • 

raison d'etre of most Greek organizations. For example, when 
we give the use of our public school buildings for Greek evening 
schools—as we always should do—let the leading Greeks of the 
community decide with us the best course, methods, and teachers. 
In sanitary reforms, ask the advice and cooperation of the lead¬ 
ers—and so in all civic reforms. To ignore utterly the regular 
Greek organization in dealing with matters which affect Greeks, 
is as unwise and insulting for example, as it is to invite a troop 
of boy scouts or a fraternal order to participate in a Memorial 
Day parade and ignore the well drilled Greek military company 
of the city-—a pretty way to foster citizenship. Moreover, the 
same plan should be followed by the United States and the state 
governments in planning legislation or reforms that affect the 
immigrant. Let them take into confidence and act with the ad¬ 
vice and cooperation of the national organization of the Greeks 
(and those of other foreign people). Is it not foolish to make 
long investigations and act on them without the help of those 
who know the conditions best and are in the position to do the 
most effective work? 

4. Finally, that which really counts most, as it does in all 
else—our personal touch of man with man. Let those Amer¬ 
icans who stand for that true ideal of Americanism which the 
Greek expected to find before he came to our shores—that which 
is lofty without vanity, free without license, unselfish without 
discrimination—let such men and women learn to know their 
Greek neighbors by personal touch and sincere friendship; and, 
if need arise, by doing for them the good turns, not of “charity” 
but of friendship. Only so can the Greeks learn to value the 
ideals of the true American. 

Greeks in America: an account of their coming, progress, customs, 
living and aspirations, pp. 182:182-9 Boston. Sherman, French & Co. 
1913. 


AMERICANIZATION 


153 


AMERICAN EDUCATION IN THE 
PHILIPPINES 

A Contrast to English and Dutch Colonial Policies 
William H. Taft 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, I908-I9I2 

The skill and success with which the English have governed 
tropical races in India, Burma, the Straits Settlements, and the 
Federated Malay States and in Egypt, and with which the Dutch 
have governed their East Indian possessions, especially the 
Malays in Java, are well known to anyone familiar with the 
history of colonial administration. They have secured tran¬ 
quillity, well-ordered government, an impartial administration of 
justice, and material improvement. By the construction of roads, 
bridges, harbors, railroads, and other public works, they have de¬ 
veloped the production and trade of the colonies to the highest 
degree. 

When there was thrust upon the American people the task of 
governing the Philippines, with their 8,000,000 souls, it was nat¬ 
ural and proper and of the highest utility that we should profit 
by the experience of the British and Dutch in their colonial ad¬ 
ministration; but in so far as the people we had. to deal with 
were different from the people under their control, and in so far 
as the object of our taking control of the islands was different 
from that which animated them, we were obliged to vary our 
policy from theirs. The chief difference between their policy 
and ours, in the treatment of tropical people, arises from the fact 
that we are seeking to prepare the people under our guidance 
and control for popular self-government. We are attempting to 
do this, first, by primary and secondary education offered freely 
to all the Filipino people; and, second, by extending to the Fil¬ 
ipinos wider and wider practice in self-government so that by 
actual experience they may learn the duties of the citizen, his 
proper sense of responsibility for the government and the self- 
restraint absolutely necessary to a wise control of a minority by 
a majority. Without denying for one moment that the material 
development of a country, the construction of roads, harbors and 
railroads and other modern methods of intercommunication, are 
most efficient means of elevating the people and making their ed- 


154 


AMERICANIZATION 


ucation possible, those who have been responsible for the Philip¬ 
pine policy of the American Government have also regarded the 
establishment of a public-school system in the islands as a most 
important feature of their administration. This is at variance 
with the views of the British and Dutch Colonial Administra¬ 
tors. Those Englishmen who have had occasion to comment 
upon our course in the Philippines have invariably criticised the 
expenditure of large sums by the Government in the payment of 
American school teachers and the establishment of public schools 
thruout the islands. Such is the view of Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. 
Savage Landor, and Mr. Alleyne Ireland. It is based not only 
upon what they deem to be the greater value to the people of 
public improvements, for which the money spent in public educa¬ 
tion might be used, but also upon the positive injury that they 
think is done to a tropical people, situated as the Filipinos are, 
by spreading education among them. They believe that popular 
education makes for the detriment of the tropical races, whose 
life work must be largely taken up in tilling the fields. 

* * * * * * 

The theory of this policy is that if people are kept ignorant 
under a strong, paternal government, they are much less likely 
to become discontented with the restrictions of Government and 
much more amenable to Governmental influence in inducing them 
to labor and till the fields, than if they receive education enough 
to widen their horizon and to inspire them with a desire to be 
something more than hewers of wood and haulers of water. It 
is considered that a widespread system of education promotes 
among those who receive its benefits the development of discon¬ 
tented persons, of agitators and political demagogs, who are 
quite willing to embroil their people in insurrection and con¬ 
troversies with the Government without any thought of the real 
benefit which may be thereby acquired. 

Our view of this subject is that the benefit to be derived from 
the general system of education to all the people greatly out¬ 
weighs the disadvantages from the over-education of a few who 
put their knowledge acquired thru the system of public educa¬ 
tion to a bad purpose. It is not the purpose of the American 
Government, in retaining control of the Philippine Islands, to se¬ 
cure a permanent government of an ignorant people, from whose 
industry and trade commercial benefits may be secured to the 
mother country, nor are the peace and tranquillity of the islands 


AMERICANIZATION 


155 


and subservience of the people to our Government to be our 
ultimate aim. Our chief object is to develop the people into a 
self-governing people, and in doing that popular education is, in 
our judgment, the first and most important means. Now, if, in 
extending the education, we may prepare in our own schools men 
who will subsequently revolt against the Government, or seek to 
disturb the peace and tranquillity in the islands, this risk we 
must run for the greater benefit involved in a spread of intelli¬ 
gence among the whole people. The truth is, the Government is 
much more subject to attack and disturbance with the whole body 
of the people in a state of hopeless ignorance and a small num¬ 
ber of agitators who can exercise unmeasured and irresponsible 
control over them than it is when the people have general intel¬ 
ligence and are able to distinguish between the appeals to them 
by real patriots and the mouthings of irresponsible agitators and 
demagogs. The policy of the American Philippine Government 
is not to give to, or force upon, every worker in the rice fields a 
college education. In the nature of things, the great mass will 
only receive a primary education. More than this, we have al¬ 
ready established manual training, trade, and agricultural schools, 
and we expect to increase their number so that the people of 
every province may profit by them. The Philippine people have 
comparatively few skilled workmen among them, and yet the 
Filipino is singularly apt with his hands, and has a natural taste 
for mechanics and machinery. Education of this kind certainly 
does not promote idleness or create discontented and over-ed¬ 
ucated agitators. 

* * * * * 

We in America believe in popular self-government. We be¬ 
lieve in it because in the long run we are sure that each man can 
be depended on with reasonable intelligence to protect his own 
interest more constantly than another can be trusted to look after 
that interest. Hence the problem which the United States has 
had set before it, is the question of how to educate the Filipino 
people to be a self-governing people. The criticisms of this 
policy are really founded on a denial of the possibility of fitting 
a people like .the Filipinos for self-government. We must admit 
that, with respect to tropical races, this is a new experiment. 
Such a policy has never been attempted by any government hav¬ 
ing tropical colonies or dependencies, and the issue whether it is 
a feasible and practicable policy remains to be decided. Speak- 


156 


AMERICANIZATION 


ing for myself, I think it is entirely practicable, if sufficient time 
and effort and patience are given to working it out. 

How long it will require to accomplish the object of those 
who instituted these processes of education of the people, is 
mere conjecture. Certainly it ought to continue long enough 
under American auspices to insure its continuance and main¬ 
tenance under the auspices of the Filipino people if they should 
see fit to establish independent government. If, however, the 
government were now turned over to the Filipino people without 
continued American guidance, the whole fabric of the educa¬ 
tional system established by the American Government in those 
islands would fall to pieces. The self-sacrifice, the patience, and 
the knowledge necessary to the continuance of such a system of 
education are not to be found now even among the intelligent 
classes of the Filipino people. They are not sufficiently charged 
with the importance of maintaining all these instruments that I 
have described, for the purpose of elevating the poor and the 
common people. They are quite content with a government of 
the few. I was visited in Manila by a delegation of Filipino 
gentlemen who desired to found a party for the advocacy and 
obtaining of immediate independence by peaceable means, and 
who made an argument in its favor based on the ground which 
they solemnly stated, that they had counted the number of the 
gente illustrada, or educated people, in the island, and they fig¬ 
ured out the number of offices to be filled and had found that 
the number of educated people in the islands was more than dou¬ 
ble the offices to be filled. They reasoned, therefore, that as the 
offices could be filled twice—first by one party and then by the 
other party—with educated incumbents, the country was ready 
for self-government. I pointed out to them that th* security 
and stability of a popular self-government depended upon the 
existence of free, intelligent public opinion, and that as long as 
90 per cent, of their people were in hopeless ignorance and in a 
mere state of Christian pupilage, subject to being led about by 
every wealthy educated demagog that should raise his voice, they 
could not expect the coming of firm or stable self-government. 

If the policy is to be followed which shall take away from 
the hands of the American Government the power to do this 
people an infinite good by carrying out thoroly the plan of ed¬ 
ucation which I have outlined, it will be to even-one who really 
knows the situation a source of infinite regret. 

Educational Review 29:264-85. March, 1905. 


AMERICANIZATION 


157 


ARE JAPANESE ASSIMILABLE? 

Sidney L. Gulick 

STUDENT OF ORIENTAL LIFE. LECTURER IN THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY 
OF KYOTO, JAPAN 

It is ever to be remembered that just as there are sharp dif¬ 
ferences between English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish, all of Great 
Britain, and also between the English, French, Spanish, and Ger¬ 
man peoples, so there are sharp differences between the people of 
Kagoshima, Kyoto, and Sendai in Japan, and between Japanese 
and Chinese, Koreans, Hindoos, Persians, Turks, and Arabs. 
These differences, however, belong to the psychic characteristics 
of the social orders, not to the inherent and unchanging psychic 
natures of the peoples. To talk, therefore, of the oriental 1 con¬ 
sciousness, as though they possessed an essential psychic race 
unity, embracing all their differences and differentiating them 
from all Westerners, is to speak in fact of what does not exist. 
* * * * * * 

Amateur race psychologists write as though they knew the 
races in detail. As a matter of fact, they are guided by their 
own a priori theories. They catch at a few facts here and there 
in harmony with their theories and build thereon gigantic dog¬ 
matic structures. 

A few years ago there came to Japan an eminent German pro¬ 
fessor of comparative religion. He had visited Persia and India, 
Siam and China, and was then completing his study of oriental 
religions in Japan. He stated that he wanted to get first-hand 
information, so as not to be dependent on books. And he forth¬ 
with began to discourse to the writer, who listened with rapt at¬ 
tention to his fine discriminations between the religious feelings 
and insights of the various races. Unfortunately, the writer ven¬ 
tured to ask how he had learned all these facts; had he employed 
interpreters? for surely he could not have mastered all the lan¬ 
guages in so short a time. “Oh, no,” he replied, “in the matter 
of religious feelings it is impossible to make use of interpreters, 
for they could not possibly understand what I am studying, much 
less could they inquire of pilgrims what I wish to learn, nor 
report back to me their replies. In this matter langage is use¬ 
less. My method is simply to watch. I merely observe the faces 


158 


AMERICANIZATION 


of the worshippers and pilgrims and know by my own insight 
the feelings that fill their souls.” 

There you are. A scientific German! A professor of psy¬ 
chology and philosophy diving into his own inner consciousness 
for the facts of oriental religious life.! Not every one confesses 
his method so frankly; but the great majority of tourists and 
“students” of things oriental, who cannot talk with a native of 
the country in his own tongue, nor read a line of the daily press, 
after spending in those lands a few weeks or months and receiv¬ 
ing certain impressions, fail to ask how much is objective fact 
and how much subjective fiction; and then, bound to write inter¬ 
estingly, they proceed to describe the “inscrutable” Oriental, with 
his strange ways of life and, to us, impossible views of human 
relationships. Such is the material that has been largely to blame 
for the extraordinary misconceptions of the East so prevalent in 
the West. 

Lafcadio Hearn, Sir Edwin Arnold, Percival Lowell, and such 
writers have described most entertainingly and with captivating 
literary skill the Japan of their dreams, but not the real Japan 
of flesh and blood. Superficial peculiarities are exaggerated with¬ 
out measure, deeper identities are overlooked, until we are led to 
believe that Orientals are so different from us that really they 
are unintelligible and we are equally so to them; there is a deep, 
impassable gulf fixed between them and us. It then follows as a 
matter of course that we and they are mutually unassimilable. 
.... The writer regards these opinions and writings not only as 
erroneous but also as injurious. They are affecting seriously the 
relations of the nations. In his experience, the writer has found 
the Japanese thoroughly human; they are fundamentally like us 
and wish to be regarded and treated so. They wish to be ac¬ 
cepted as brothers in the great world of history and in the for¬ 
ward movement of mind. They wish to enter fully into our lives 
and to be allowed full fellowship. They keenly resent the charge 
that they are inscrutable and unassimilable. 

That there are no psychological differences between East and 
West is by no means our contention. There certainly are. These 
the writer has in a measure studied and described in his work on 
“Japanese Evolution, social and psychic.” Our general conten¬ 
tion is that such psychic differences as distinguish the East from 
the West are products of social life, belong to the social order, 
and are therefore subject to rapid change. . . . The entire his- 


AMERICANIZATION 


159 


tory of Japan during the past fifty years is one grand illustration, 
of this. Japanese character is rapidly undergoing changes now 
that feudalism has been abandoned and occidental modes of polit¬ 
ical, industrial, educational, judicial, and social organization and 
life have been introduced. . . . China is now rapidly moving 
over the same road. 

****** 

The degree in which the children will be assimilated to the 
new civilization will depend on many factors, but they are wholly 
social. Are the immigrants welcomed and treated as friends by 
the adopted land? Do the parents desire to give their children 
complete education in the language of their adopted land and do 
they have the means for it? Or do they, on the contrary, desire 
to keep their children loyal to their own native land, giving them 
little or no foreign education, requiring their children to master 
their own ancestral language and literature? And further, from 
infancy, does the mother sing the native songs to her children 
and instil feelings of patriotism and devotion and admiration for 
national heroes? And, on the other hand, does the adopted land 
give them the welcome and educational, economic, and social op¬ 
portunity or does it refuse these or at least begrudge them? 

These are the principal factors that determine the degree of 
social assimilation which children experience in a foreign land. 
Of course, the influence of the parents may be exerted in one 
direction, while that of the social, educational, and economic 
situation may work in the opposite direction. The results will 
be mixed and highly complex. But the point to be clearly remem¬ 
bered is that the degree of social assimilation that actually takes 
place depends entirely on the social conditions of the home and 
the environment. 

The United States has been an extraordinary experimental 
laboratory of assimilation. Here all the peoples of Europe have 
intermingled. First social assimilation went on apace and then 
race intermarriage. As to the complete social assimilation of the 
descendants of all immigrants from Europe of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, no one has any doubt. This may be 
vaguely thought by some to have taken place through intermar¬ 
riage, but that is far from the case. Are there not many fami¬ 
lies of unmixed Puritan, German, or Dutch ancestry and yet are 
they less American? Do they lack in social assimilation? . . . 

The power of the free, political, judicial, educational, and 


i6o 


AMERICANIZATION 


economic institutions of America to assimilate the various an¬ 
tagonistic populations of Europe is one of the striking features 
of modern life. Our institutions are being put to a terrific test 
by millions of raw immigrants. But the evidence is clear and 
convincing that from these masses, even in the second generation, 
we are securing enthusiastic and intelligent Americans, loyal to 
the core to the characteristic features of the country. 

But the significant fact is that these assimilative processes are 
social rather than biological, and can, therefore, take place with 
amazing rapidity. And this is exactly because it takes place in 
the realm of the soul and not of the blood. . . . 

Were the social assimilation of races dependent on intermar¬ 
riage, the outlook for the United States would be, indeed, fore¬ 
boding. Such, however, is not the case. It proceeds independ¬ 
ently, for it is a matter of social inheritance and is transmitted 
entirely through social relations. 

The great obstacle to the social assimilation of race is race 
aggregation, which preserves race language and customs, and this 
is equally true of any race. Provide for social intermixture with 
the joint education of the children and assimilation will take 
place with amazing rapidity. 

Now, Japanese residing in America desire to have their chil¬ 
dren associate with Americans that they may learn American 
customs and the English language. The number of Japanese 
reared from infancy in America is still few. But in spite of the 
anti-Japanese sentiment, which does not furnish the most favor¬ 
able environment, the results are surprising. Japanese children 
soon become so Americanized that they have no difficulty in mak¬ 
ing friendships. 

The results in Hawaii of American education on children of 
all races are highly instructive from the sociological standpoint, 
justifying the belief that, even in sections where the majority of 
families are not American but Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, 
and Hawaiian, the American school succeeds to a wonderful de¬ 
gree in imparting the American language and social heri¬ 
tage. . . . 

In estimating the problem of Japanese assimilability, there is 
one important factor which an American would hardly surmise 
and which he cannot easily grasp, namely, the enormous diffi¬ 
culty of the Japanese language. A long exposition of its charac¬ 
teristics would be needed to illustrate this point adequately. The 


AMERICANIZATION 


161 


difficulty may be suggested by the statement that no Japanese 
child reared wholly in America can acquire both an English edu¬ 
cation and a reading knowledge of his own language. If he 
remains in America till he is twelve or thirteen years old and 
then returns to Japan, he is already so badly handicapped that it 
is exceedingly difficult for him to get into the Japanese school 
system. Japanese children in Hawaii and California after school 
hours commonly attend, from four to six P. M., some Japanese 
school for the study of their own language. They find on reach¬ 
ing the age of ten or twelve, that they can read anything in Eng¬ 
lish which their minds can understand, while in Japanese they are 
still struggling with the mere forms of the Chinese ideographs. 
English they find easy, while their own language they find in¬ 
creasingly difficult and distasteful. 

The result is that Japanese children reared in America lose 
the reading power of their own language far more surely and 
rapidly than those of European immigrants. This is an im¬ 
portant fact, for it means that Japanese of the second genera¬ 
tion in America are more rapidly and completely cut off from the 
social and historical influence of their people than are American- 
horn aliens of any other race. . . . 

Those who deny the assimilability of the Japanese have based 
their belief on a theory of race nature which is no longer tenable. 
In a word, they are obsessed by the biological conception of man’s 
nature and life. They do not recognize the psychic or spiritual 
factor, nor do they perceive that this psychic factor modifies in 
important ways even man’s physical life. They think of heredity 
only in terms of biological analogy and have not a glimpse of 
social heredity with laws wholly its own. They, accordingly, 
cannot conceive of the real assimilation by one people of mem¬ 
bers of another race except by intermarriage and actual inter¬ 
change of biological heredity. Nor can they understand how, 
from groups of different peoples and races, a truly homogeneous 
nation can arise, except through intermarriage and complete 
blood mixture. . . . 

Observation of adult Japanese who have been in California a 
few years, by unsympathetic Californians who have never been 
in Japan, may indeed seem to to substantiate the view as to Jap¬ 
anese non-assimilability. Observation, however, by one who has 
lived long in Japan leads to the opposite conclusion. The degree 
in which Japanese in California have already been changed is 


16 2 


AMERICANIZATION 


highly impressive and prophetic. An American, unfamiliar with 
the Japanese in their own land, is not in a position to estimate the 
changes which take place through life in this land. . . . 

The writer was told by an experienced Japanese teacher of 
children in Japan that one of his impressive discoveries on com¬ 
ing to America was the fact that Japanese children born and 
reared here differ so distinctly from children in Japan. Their 
spirit and even the play of expression on their faces disclose the 
subtle influences at work transforming them. . . . 

Lafcadio Hearn is quoted in proof of the alleged non-as- 
similability of the Japanese: “Here is an astounding fact. The 
Japanese child is as close to you as the European child, perhaps 
closer and sweeter, because infinitely more natural and naturally 
refined. Cultivate his mind, and the more it is cultivated the 
farther you push him from you. Why? Because here the race 
antipodalism shows itself.” 

Mr. Hearn has well observed the facts, but miserably failed 
in the interpretation. The education of the Japanese child in 
Japan does, indeed, push him away from you, an American, be¬ 
cause it gives him the Japanese social inheritance, the product of 
thousands of years of divergent social evolution. But educate 
that same child in America, give him the American social inheri¬ 
tance and the English language and you bind him the more 
closely to you. Just here is the fallacy into which nearly all fall 
who insist on Japanese non-assimilability. They are talking about 
the adult. They forget, or do not know, that any social heritage 
whatever can be given to any child, and that, therefore, the child 
of any race can be assimilated, socially, to any other. And this 
exactly is the reason also why race aggregations in any land are 
relatively non-assimilable. It is because the children receive the 
social heritage of their parents’ race with its language rather than 
that of the country where they live. 

The determined defendant of Japanese non-assimiliability dis¬ 
plays amazing ignorance of the results of modern science which 
has completely taken the ground from under his feet. 

Adequate specific data are lacking in regard to the desir¬ 
ability of biological assimilation of the Japanese and white races, 
but the social assimilability of the Japanese is beyond question. 
In this they do not differ from any other people. . . . 

The American Japanese Problem, pp. 132-68. New York. Scribner, 
1914. 


AMERICANIZATION 


163 


LONG, TOO LONG, O LAND 

Walt Whitman 

POET, SEER AMERICANIST 

Long, too long, O land, 

Travelling roads all even and peaceful, you learn’d from joys 
and prosperity only; 

But now, ah now, to learn from crisis of anguish—advancing, 
grappling with direst fate, and recoiling not; 

And now to conceive, and show to the world, what your chil¬ 
dren en-masse really are. 


FLAG OF STARS! THICK-SPRINKLED' 
BUNTING 

Walt Whitman 

Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting! 

Long yet your road, fateful flag!—long yet your road, lined 
with bloody death! 

For the prize I see at issue, at last is the world! 

All its ships and shores I see, interwoven with your threads, 
greedy banner! 

—Dream’d again the flags of kings, highest borne, to flaunt 
unrival’d? 

O hasten, flag of man ! O with sure and steady step, passing 
highest flags of kings, 

Walk supreme to the heavens, mighty symbol—run up above 
them all, 

Flag of stars! thick-sprinkled bunting! 

Poems of Walt Whitman, pp. 396 and 423. New York, Thomas Y. 

Crowell co., 1902. 






















PART III 

TECHNIC OF RACE ASSIMILATION 











































































































































































































































































































































































RACE-ASSIMILATION 


THE HOPES OF THE HYPHENATED 

George Creel 

CHAIRMAN, UNITED STATES COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION 

The question for the United States to decide is whether the 
same old policy of neglect, stupidity, and oppression shall be 
pursued, or whether a new and sincere approach shall be made 
to the task of assimilation. In this connection, let it be borne in 
mind that while the immigrant seems to suffer and die in seeming 
helplessness, he works his revenge upon society in a thousand 
ways. Out of his ignorance and despair he drags down the 
wage-scale, acts as a strike-breaker, lowers the American stan¬ 
dard of living, and adds the note of actual ferocity to the com¬ 
petitive struggle. Out of the slums where aliens fester in dirt 
and disease come the defectives and delinquents that fill our jails 
and asylums, and their ignorance and lack of civic interest make 
them easy prey for the unclean political influences that prosper 
by municipal maladministration. 

Ludlow, Calumet, Lawrence, Paterson, Cabin Creek, and 
other revolts of oppressed aliens have cost millions in actual loss 
and scarred whole States with hatred. Even if justice to the 
alien contains no appeal, there is the instinct of self-preservation 
to compel drastic changes. 

Certain steps already being taken in the direction of re¬ 
form. Mr Caminetti, Commissioner-General of Immigration, 
has vitalized the division of information so that it is truly aiding 
the immigrant in making the choice of a home, and is doing a 
splendid work in connection with the employment problem. Also, 
by an arrangement with Mr. Claxon, Commissioner of Educa¬ 
tion, the names of all immigrant children of school age are sent 
immediately from the various ports of arrival to the school au¬ 
thorities at the point of destination. 

Several cities, notably Cleveland, have established immigra¬ 
tion bureaus that guard that immigrant from the time of his 


168 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


arrival, watching his education, protecting his rights, promoting 
his interests, and helping him in the advance to naturalization. 
Of the States, California has moved to the front with a statute 
providing teachers to work in the homes of immigrants, instruct¬ 
ing children and adults in education laws, labor laws, sanitation, 
and the fundamental principles of American citizenship. 

The North American Civic League for Immigrants is a pow¬ 
erful volunteer body that attempts the promotion of helpful leg¬ 
islation, the positive work required to protect the immigrant, and 
the teaching of the English language. Through the medium of 
the Baron de Hirsch Trust, the Jewish immigrant receives far 
larger consideration than that accorded to any other nationality. 
The Trust maintains distributing agencies at all points of entry, 
and not only is the alien placed in the business or job for which 
he has been trained, but in event of his poverty he is loaned the 
money necessary for transportation and equipment. 

These activities are praiseworthy indeed, but they do not by 
any means contain the solution of the immigrant problem. The 
work that is to be done cannot wait upon private generosity or 
individual initiative, nor will the true answer ever be given by 
cities or states acting by themselves. The task of assimilation is 
national. It is the Federal Government that lets in these millions 
from other shores, and it is the Federal Government that must 
accept the responsibility for their protection, development, and 
Americanization. The one policy that carries with it any cer¬ 
tainty of success is a policy that will regard every alien as a ward 
of the nation, to be guarded, aided, and protected from the very^ 
day of arrival to the day of naturalization. Until they have 
mastered the language, become acquainted with their rights as 
well as their duties, and gained a sense of belonging, these 
strangers within our gates are as children, and must be so 
treated. 

Such a policy, taking account of the muddles and maladjust¬ 
ments of the past, will invent machinery of distribution that will 
end the disastrous stupidity of farmers huddled in industrial cen¬ 
ters, tradesmen and professional men herded in mills and fac¬ 
tories, and skilled labor wasting itself in unskilled drudgeries—a 
machinery that will place every immigrant to his own advantage 
as well as to the advantage of the state. 

In the growth of the unemployment problem, and the increase 
in involuntary poverty, may be seen the evil results of the theory 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


169 

that has insisted upon government as a sovereign power rather 
than as a working partnership with the people. In the formula¬ 
tion of a sane immigration policy there is the chance for the 
Government of the United States to put off its purple robes of 
aloofness and put on the overalls of empire-building. 

Government lands and state lands lie idle while the business 
of pioneering is turned over to promoters who are concerned 
only with their profits, caring nothing for the human element that 
figures in their close bargains. Where is there larger promise of 
happiness and prosperity than in the transportation of immigrant 
agriculturists, in community groups, to this public land, together 
with such equipment as will enable them to make a flying -start in 
their conquest of the soil? It is not a new idea, or radical, for 
other countries are using the twenty-year-loan system to put peo¬ 
ple upon the land. 

In those isolated cases where immigrant groups have suc¬ 
ceeded in getting into agriculture, the result has been industry, 
thrift, sobriety, education, and Americanization. Italians are 
growing cotton on the Mississippi delta, fruit in the Ozarks and 
Louisiana, and raising garden-truck in the Atlantic Coast States 
and New England, either rendering worthless land productive by 
their toil or else developing supposedly waste tracts. 

The Poles are lovers of the land, ninety per cent of them that 
come to the United States being eager to engage in agriculture, 
and the small number able to achieve their ambition have only 
stories of success to tell. The Polish farmers of Wisconsin, Illi¬ 
nois, Texas, and Kansas are not behind the native-born in their 
contributions to the general good, and the Bohemians are others 
who have done well wherever their feet have touched the soil. 

The investigations of the Immigration Commission proved 
that all of those thus brought into contact with opportunity were 
grasping it, taking out naturalization papers, Americanizing in 
every way, and playing their proper part in municipal, state, and 
national affairs. 

A second necessary step is the creation of a federal system of 
public employment bureaus which may minister to the needs of 
the native-born as well as of the alien. Individual states havfe 
failed abjectly in this respect, for even the nineteen common¬ 
wealths that have created free employment bureaus have done 
little more than to pile up records of inadequacy. Federal con¬ 
trol would cover the whole country, supplementing and assisting 


i7o 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


the work of existing organizations, regulating private agencies, 
and bringing together definitely the jobless man and the manless 
job. Here again it is a matter of imitation rather than innova¬ 
tion, for Great Britain and Germany have for years been operat¬ 
ing national labor exchanges successfully. 

The United States must follow the example of European 
countries, which meet the difficulties of poverty by the advance¬ 
ment of transportation costs, and also guard against class con¬ 
trol of the machinery by providing that both workers and em¬ 
ployers shall have representation on a governing committee. 

Justice must be made swift and inexpensive, and this cannot 
be done until the simple and innumerable disputes of the indus¬ 
trial world are removed from the wearisome processes of tradi¬ 
tional jurisprudence. As long ago as 1806, France created indus¬ 
trial courts, and the example has been followed by Germany, 
Switzerland, Italy, and Belgium. A president, who represents 
the public, and an equal number of workers and employers sit as 
a jury rather than as a court. Lawyers are barred; the parties 
to the dispute take turns relating grievance and defense, and in 
consequence of this simplicity, ninety per cent of the cases are 
adjusted without formal hearings. In event of threatened strikes 
or lockouts, the courts have the power to sit as boards of arbitra¬ 
tion, and it is only in rare cases that satisfactory agreements are 
not reached. 

Compare the simplicity of this procedure with the American 
method of frequent trials, frequent appeals, reversed decisions, 
remanded cases, court costs, lawyers’ fees, and months of delay, 
a gauntlet that no poor man dares to run. The dollar out of 
which an alien is cheated may mean to him the difference between 
a bed or a park bench, and certainly his sense of injustice will 
not inspire him with respect for democratic institutions. 

The processes of education must be quickened, and greater 
emphasis should be put upon the preparation of human beings 
for the business of life. Immigrant adults, as well as immigrant 
youth, should have the privilege of instruction in the English 
language, national, state, and municipal government, industrial 
laws, customs, and ways of American life, hygiene, sanitation, 
and all other allied subjects that will fit them to be intelligent, 
useful American citizens. 

Germany, through a compulsory system of continuation 
schools, has control over a youth until his eighteenth year; and 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


171 


although the system has been in force since 1891, it is only now 
that the United States is taking timid, tentative steps in the 
same direction. 

Federal standards of education must be raised, and the estab¬ 
lished principle of federal aid to the poorer states should be 
carried through to the point where illiteracy will vanish, whether 
the illiterate be a native-born child or an adult alien. Not the 
least vital task of the public school system is to serve the immi¬ 
grant during his struggle for prosperity and citizenship. 

Health is no less important than education, and authoritative 
investigation has shown that adult delinquency and dependency 
are largely due to neglect in connection with the physical defects 
and deficiencies of the growing youth. Not alone is it necessary 
to have medical inspection and dental clinics for every child that 
passes through the public schools of the United States, but par¬ 
ticularly in the case of the immigrant and the poverty-stricken 
native-born there is need of infant dispensaries, model kitchens, 
milk stations, visiting nurses, and a program of preventive medi¬ 
cine. 

While new machinery in large measure may be necessary for 
the doing of all these things, the plant for its housing is already 
at hand. The school buildings of the United States offer them¬ 
selves for the purpose in full perfection of convenience, economy, 
and effectiveness. As it is today, the schools, which represent 
the largest single investment of the people’s money, are in use a 
scant seven hours a day for an average of one hundred and 
forty-four days a year. 

The neighborhood is the group unit next in importance to the 
family itself, and the school building is the center of the neigh¬ 
borhood. What reaches every child in the United States can 
reach every parent, and not only does the wider use of the school 
plant hold out its rich promise to the alien, but to the native born 
as well. 

In the every building serving its neighborhood group may be 
placed the official representative of the federal system of immi¬ 
grant distribution, the branch office of the federal employment 
exchange, the industrial court, the medical inspection bureau, the 
dental clinic, the milk station, the visiting nurses, the infant dis¬ 
pensary, the free-legal-aid bureau, the health office, and the 
juvenile court. Here is the natural and suitable place for the in¬ 
struction of the adult alien in English and citizenship, for the art 


172 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


gallery, for the branch library, for the model kitchen, and for 
the development of the play instinct. 

Night use of the school buildings strikes at the very heart of 
the leisure-time problem. In ctities thousands of little children 
play in the streets, menaced alike by evil environment and the 
police court, and in the country life is admittedly dull and stag¬ 
nant. Growing girls are forced into the dance hall, men into the 
saloon, and women either gossip across stoops and fire escapes or 
become fungous growths in kitchens. In competition with the 
reckless greeds of commercialized amusement, the social center 
offers amateur theatricals, debates, dancing parties, moving pic¬ 
ture shows, receptions, gymnasium games, all in a clean, inspiring 
environment, subjected to the wholesome restraints of the family 
group and neighborly friendship. 

The immigrants can be tapped for their rich store of folk 
songs, games, and traditional customs, so that not only will the 
native born be enriched and broadened, but the alien given that 
absolutely essential sense of belonging. To watch an interracial 
pageant in a New York school building, shared in by twenty na¬ 
tionalities, happy, laughing, proud, and friendly, is complete an¬ 
swer to the question of assimilation. 

The school building should be the polling-place, and through 
the medium of the social center it is possible to effect the self¬ 
organization of voters into a deliberative body that will always 
be itr session, the school house its headquarters. Would not this 
be more inspiring to the alien than the location of voting booths 
in livery stables, barber shops, and sheds, or the gathering of 
voters in some saloon-connected room or in a hall paid for by 
interested parties out of mysterious funds? 

With specific reference to the alien, the school-principal em¬ 
ployed by the educational authorities to look after the children 
of immigrants may also be employed by the immigration authori¬ 
ties to care for the adults as well. His should be the proposition 
of neighborhood guardian of these wards of the nation, looking 
after their inclusion in the proper classes, acquainting them w r ith 
the sendees rendered by employment bureau, health office, free 
legal aid bureau, and visiting nurses, and drawing them into the 
night play of the social center. In thickly settled communities, 
where a principal would not have the necessary time, an assistant 
or assistants might be appointed. 

A beginning has been made. Wisconsin, Indiana, Massachu- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


173 


setts, Kansas, New York, Washington, New Jersey, and the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia are in possession of a law that permits the 
people to use school buildings, aside from school hours, for the 
purpose of meeting and discussing “any and all subjects and 
questions which in their judgment may appertain to the educa¬ 
tional, political, economic, artistic, and moral interest of the 
citizens.” Out of its has grown the new profession of social 
secretary. 

All that is necessary is the adoption of a federal policy that 
will give unity, purpose, and dynamic direction to what is now 
isolated and sporadic, and the task of immigrant assimilation is 
a sound base for such a policy. Fortunately enough, the money 
for the work is at hand, and what is more, it is money provided 
by the immigrant himself. Today, in the United States Treasury, 
there is a balance of $10,000,000 in the head tax fund con¬ 
tributed to by every new arrival. There is no question that this 
income was primarily intended as a secred trust fund, for the 
law of 1882, levying a tax of fifty cents on every immigrant, 
provided that “the money thus collected . . . shall constitute a 
fund to be called the immigrant fund, and shall be used ... to 
defray the expenses of regulating immigration under this act and 
for the care of immigrants arriving in the United States, for the 
relief of such as are in distress, and for the general purposes and 
expenses of carrying this act into effect.” 

In 1894 the head tax was raised to one dollar, in 1903 to two 
dollars, and in 1907 to four dollars. In 1909 the immigrant fund 
was abolished, and the headtax receipts were dumped into the 
Treasury, the regulation of immigration being forced to depend 
upon such annual allowances as Congress saw fit to make. The 
$10,000,000 balance belongs to the immigrants, and even if their 
need were less bitter, it would still be unfair and dishonest to 
divert a trust fund from its avowed object to purposes that were 
never intended. 

The dreadful European conflict will not have been without 
its service if the United States, alarmed by the persistence of the 
hyphen in American life, adopts an immigration policy that in 
its essence will be a policy of hope, justice, aspiration, and prog¬ 
ress for all the oppressed and unhappy, whether they be native 
born or strangers within the gates. 


Hopes of the Hyphenated. Century, v. 91, 350*63. January, 1916. 


174 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE 
IMMIGRANT 

Grover G. Huebner 

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

I. The Problem of Americanization 

“Americanization” is assimilation in the United States. It is 
that process by which immigrants are transformed into Amer¬ 
icans. It is not the mere adoption of American citizenship, 
but the actual raising of the immigrant to the American eco¬ 
nomic, social and moral standard of life. Then has an immigrant 
been Americanized only when his mind and will have been 
united with the mind and will of the American so that the two 
act and think together. The American of today is, therefore, 
not the American of yesterday. He is the result of the assimila¬ 
tion of all the different nationalities of the United States which 
have been united so as to think and act together. 

Again, Americanization is very different from amalgamation. 1 
Amalgamation is but one force which appears in the American¬ 
ization process and that an unimportant one, as it usually occurs 
only after the immigrant has been at least partly Americanized. 
Furthermore, “to think and act together” does not necessitate that 
race ties are wholly lost. That is its usual meaning, but nation¬ 
alities such as the Jews, Italians, Bohemians and even Scan¬ 
dinavians often settle in practically exclusive settlements. Such 
settlements are Americanized in as much as the immigrants learn 
to think and act like Americans. “To think and act together” in 
some cases is, therefore, to think and act like Americans, and in 
others it is the actual uniting of the minds and activities of the 
immigrants with those of the Americans by actual, permanent 
association. 

Finally, it is essential to recognize degrees of Americaniza¬ 
tion. Some immigrants will adopt certain American methods, 
customs and ideas, but will refuse, or prove themselves unable, 
to adopt others. Some will, quite fully, adopt the industrial 
methods of American industry and yet be unable to speak the 
English language. While they are not fully Americanized, they 
are at least to a greater or less degree. 


1 Prof. Commons, Chaut., 28:42; Mayo-Smith, Pol. Sci. Qua., 9:670. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


175 


II. The Forces of Americanization 

The question now to determine is: What is being done to 
meet this growing difficulty in the problem of Americanization? 
What are the Americanizing forces ? How do they affect the im¬ 
migrant? Are they the same for all nationalities? Are they the 
same for the city as for the country? To what extent are they 
successful with the various nationalities? What forces are doing 
most to meet the problem? 

(a) The School 

The importance of the school as an Americanization force lies 
chiefly in its effect upon the second generation; yet indirectly it 
affects the adult immigrant himself, 2 in as much as his children, 
consciously and unconsciously, influence him in the same direc¬ 
tion. A considerable number of immigrants, also, come as chil¬ 
dren and can and do attend school. 

****** 

What Does the School Do to Americanize the Immigrant? 

The following are some of the main Americanizing activities 
of the public school: 

1. It at once throws the children of different nationalities 
into mutual relationship. This inevitably breaks up the habits of 
any one of the foreign nationalities. The next step is, then, to 
adopt a common way of thinking and acting, which practically 
means the adoption of the American standard. This does not, 
however, apply to exclusive foreign colonies where schools may 
consist of a single nationality. In many cases it not only means 
the forced association of different nationalities, but of an immi¬ 
grant child with children who are already Americanized. It is 
evident that in this case, which is the normal one, the immigrant 
child necessarily loses its foreign ideas and unconsciously adopts 
the thoughts and activities of the American companions. Even 
in the so-called foreign colonies, where schools are filled with 
practically a single nationality, the un-Americanized will be 
obliged to see the customs of those of their own nationality who 
are already partly Americanized. 

2. The public school teaches the children the English lan- 

3 U. S. Ind. Com., Vol. 15, p. 475 - 


176 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


guage. This enables them to associate with the various nation¬ 
alities in their community, even outside of the school. 

It is probably necessary that a distinction be drawn here be¬ 
tween the country and the city. The testimony is universal that 
the English language is essential for Americanization in the city. 
Yet in the country it is quite plain that the English language is 
not necessary in order to secure a very considerable degree of 
Americanization. There are many farmers in the northwest who 
cannot speak English and yet they are acquainted with the Amer¬ 
ican methods of agriculture. There are settlements of Bohemi¬ 
ans, Germans and Scandinavians in Wisconsin and Michigan who 
cannot speak English, but they are Americans in practically every 
other sense. 

3. The public school tends to break up hostility between na¬ 
tionalities. Not only is this the natural consequence of the close 
association between the children of different nationalities in the 
school, but the teacher prevents its open appearance and teaches 
the existence of common interests. Social solidarity is secured. 

4. It teaches American traditions and the history of our insti¬ 
tutions. This again means a breaking up of race ties and a 
building up of social solidarity. Under this comes, also, the 
growth of American patriotism, which, while not important in¬ 
dustrially, is a step toward the assimilation of minds and wills. 

5. The public school is the first and chief trainer of the im¬ 
migrant child’s mind to fit it for originality and inventiveness. It 
enlarges the child’s capacity. 

6. The introduction of machinery makes it essential that 
labor shift from one kind of work to another. The public school, 
in training the minds of the children, fits them to meet this ver¬ 
satility in American industry. 

7. The American characteristic of aspiration to reach a 
higher plane of production is transmitted to the immigrant child. 
This Americanizes the thoughts of the immigrant. 

8. Finally, the public school, by the introduction of manual 
training, not only tends to give the child some idea of American 
industrial methods, but teaches him that manual work is here 
the universal rule and is not a stamp of inferiority. 

Little need be said of the parochial schools. Opinions differ 
even as to whether or not they are a positive hindrance to 
Americanization. It seems, however, that they do something 
toward assimilation. In many cases they mean the break-up of 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


177 


foreign nationality by bringing several nationalities into associa¬ 
tion. At times they bring un-Americanized children into contact 
with Americanized children. They also teach some of the 
branches taught in the public schools. 

On the other hand, it is to be remembered that these church 
schools often consist of but a single nationality, and that means 
the strengthening of race ties. Then, too, the church school fre¬ 
quently leads to priest domination, which is the very opposite of 
original thinking, of inventiveness, of individual ambition and of 
the participation of the immigrant in industrial, social and polit¬ 
ical control. Finally, the church school frequently not only 
hinders the adoption of the English language, but tends to per¬ 
petuate foreign languages. 

The influence of industrial schools outside of the public school 
is conceded. “The industrial school plants itself squarely be¬ 
tween the tenement and the public school.” 3 The Americanization 
is mostly industrial, but aside from this it is much like that of 
the public school. Evening schools, wherever they do not fail, 
are to the adult, on a limited scale, what the public school is to 
the child. 

* * * * * * 

(b) Trade Unionism 

While the school is the greatest Americanization force for the 
second generation, it has but an indirect effect upon the adult. 
The problem of how to induce this adult immigrant to adopt 
American life is rapidly coming to be a function of trade union¬ 
ism. Professor Ripley says 4 “Whatever our judgment is as to 
the expediency of the industrial policy of our American trade 
unions, no student of contemporary conditions can deny that they 
are a mighty factor in affecting the assimilation of our foreign 
population.” 

Several limitations must be noted in giving trade unions a 
relative position among other Americanizing forces. First, their 
influence is generally limited to the first generation; their effect 
upon the second generation is much inferior to that of other 
forces. Second, their influence applies only to the city. Third, 
their aggregate effect has as yet been of comparatively short 
duration, as the movement toward the unskilled immigrants is 
but a recent development. 

3 J. A. Riis, “The Children of the Poor," Chap. XII. 

4 W. Z. Ripley, At. Mo., Ap., 1904, p. 299. 


178 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


What Does the Union Do to Americanize the Immigrants? 

Some of the most important activities in this direction are the 
following: 

1. The union teaches the immigrant self-government. It is 
the first place where they learn to govern their own activities and 
to obey officers whom they themselves elect, where each has a 
vote, and each can state his grievances, not to be remedied by 
some superior force, as in his native country, but by himself and 
his fellow-workmen. 

2. The union gives the immigrant a sense of common cause, 
which leads to a sense of public, not merely private, interest. 

3. It throws different nationalities into united groups, so that 
the foreign nationality of any one of them becomes lost. The 
next step is to adopt a common way of thinking and acting, which 
is Americanization. 

4. It often brings foreigners into direct association with 
members of unions who have already been partly or wholly as¬ 
similated. These foreigners then learn to see the difference be¬ 
tween the customs of these assimilated workmen and their own. 

5. The union usually requires every member to be a citizen 
of the United States, or to have declared his intention of becom¬ 
ing one. 

6. It develops foresight in the immigrant. In fact, the very 
act of joining a union is an evidence of foresight.® 

7. It does away with the arbitrary dictation of bosses and 
employers, and introduces the idea of partial control of the in¬ 
dustry by the employee. 

8. The union shows the immigrant that he does not hold his 
“job” solely because of the generosity or personal favor of the 
employer, but because he has an inherent right to work. 

9. It does away with priest rule. 

10. It raises the immigrant’s wages, reduces his hours and 
improves his physical working conditions. In other words, it 
enables him to adopt the American social and moral standard of 
living. 

11. It breaks up hostilities between nationalities. This is not 
only in itself a step toward Americanization, but is essential be¬ 
fore the immigrants can begin to adopt the thoughts and activities 
of Americans. 

' City Wilderness, p. 109. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


179 


(c) Physical Environment and the Presence of American Life 

Not a little Americanizing influence is exerted by the physical 
conditions in which the immigrant lives after he arrives in the 
United State. 6 Climate, for example, compels a change of dress, 
manner of living and kind of occupation. Physical environment 
tends to destroy his old habits and customs, and he adopts in theii 
place American habits and customs, because they are better suited 
to American physical conditions. 

In the beginning of our history, the strongest Americanizing 
force was “frontier life,” which is a form of physical environ¬ 
ment. Under its influence the immigrants were transformed so 
rapidly and silently that there was not until recently such a prob¬ 
lem as modern Americanization. This force is, of course, dimin¬ 
ishing in importance, but in the country of today there exists 
something very much like it. Even when immigrants live in 
colonies, they frequently become Americans, in the first genera¬ 
tion.” 7 Still there are no unions in the country, and the schools 
are inferior to those of the city. Why is it that they American¬ 
ize? Quite probably it is because of this force of physical en¬ 
vironment in the form of frontier life, slightly modified. These 
immigrants do not Americanize as rapidly or as completely as 
they did years ago, but they Americanize in a similar way. It is 
slower than in the city—but it is permanent. It is the distinguish¬ 
ing feature of Americanization in the country. 

In the city it is essential to note the Americanizing influence 
which is exercised by the mere presence of American life. There 
is a continual rush of industry. In order to live the immigrant 
must work largely at American occupations, and this, either 
through the boss or through competition, compels him to adopt 
American industrial methods. He sees the American system of 
government, the American way of living, American activity and 
American ideals. The difference between them and his own must 
influence him in the direction of those he sees all about him on 
the streets and at his work. 

The extent to which this Americanizes the immigrant depends 
partly upon his inherent ability to assimilate. A race which 
crowds into colonies and avoids other nationalities is not as much 
affected in this way as one which willingly lives among the 

9 Mayo-Smith, Pol. Sci. Qua., 9:439. 

7 U. S. Ind. Com., 15:500. 


i8o 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


people of other countries. But even in such cases this force 
cannot be disregarded. All nationalities, also, have not as great 
a sense of observation as the Jew. All are not held back by the 
same home ties as the Italian. All have not as receptive minds 
as the Irish, and the intentions of one class are not as favorable 
as are those of another. 

Still, although limited in many ways, the force of physical 
environment and the presence of American life have an Amer¬ 
icanizing influence which should not be disregarded. 

(d) The Church 

The action of the church as an Americanization force is much 
like that of the parochial school. It does something to American¬ 
ize the immigrant; but, also, in another sense, acts as a hindrance. 
Its greatest influence is in molding the morals of the immigrant. 
In a certain sense, also, it acts as a co-ordinating force. Many 
nationalities comprising the great bulk of immigration belong 
to the same denomination—the Catholic. So it is with the 
Italians, the Bohemians, the Irish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hun¬ 
garians, Lithuanians, Slavonians, Polanders, and most of the 
people from southeastern Europe. It is to be noted, however, 
that the bitterest hatred often exists between these very national¬ 
ities who belong to the same denomination. The church, in 
some instances, tends to bring Americanized immigrants into as¬ 
sociation with un-Americanized immigrants. It also tends to 
prevent lawlessness. It informs the immigrant what the new 
laws are and how they differ from those of his native country. 
It tells him what the new country expects of him socially, polit¬ 
ically, and industrially. Finally, the church does something to 
obliterate slum conditions, thus not merely raising the immi¬ 
grant’s standard of life, but making it possible for other Amer¬ 
icanization forces to permanently affect him. 

On the other hand, the church makes possible “priest domina¬ 
tion,” which is the opposite of American thinking and activity. 
It tends to perpetuate the foreign language. Then, too, the very 
fact that in immigrant districts a church often consists of a single 
nationality, makes possible a hatred between nationalities. Fur¬ 
thermore, the church often works in opposition to the public 
school, and sometimes in opposition to the union. It frequently 
enters politics in the objectionable form in which the priest orders 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


181 

the members of his church to vote for certain men and issues. 
This is the very opposite of American thought and activity. 
Finally, the teachings of the church are, in many cases, brought 
to the United States by the immigrants themselves, and in this 
way tend to remind men of the past and to perpetuate foreign 
thoughts and customs. 

The extent to which the church reaches the immigrants varies 
with different churches and nationalities. It is safe to say that 
the church which most affects them is the Roman Catholic. This 
is only true, however, because more and more of the immigrants 
are annually coming from the Catholic countries. 

Attendance differs with nationalities. The Italians, for exam¬ 
ple, care much less for the church in the United States than they 
did in Italy. On the other hand, the Irish, in as much as they 
found the church the very bulwark of their liberty at home, re¬ 
main with it wherever they go; but even they often patronize the 
public instead of the church school. Other nationalities espe¬ 
cially under the influence of the Catholic Church are the Slavs, 
Hungarians, Lithuanians, and Polanders. 

The first generation of the Jews, even more than the Catholic 
nationalities, are under the influence of the church. They will 
choose one occupation instead of another in order to attend to 
their church affairs. But with them there is also a tendency to 
desert the church after they have been here for some time. One 
Jew said: “My father prays every day; I pray once a week; my 
son never prays.” 8 

The Protestant churches also exert some influence, but it is 
not so much among the immigrants of the industrial centers. 
They affect Englishmen, Germans, Scandinavians and those na¬ 
tionalities in general who formerly composed the bulk of immi¬ 
gration. Their influence, wherever it exists at all, is, with some 
exceptions, more rapid and permanent than in the case of the 
Jewish and Catholic churches, because they do not offer so much 
resistance to '.he introduction of the English language. 

(e) Politics. 

In 1900 56.8 per cent of the foreign bom males of voting age 
in the United States were naturalized, 8.3 per cent had filed their 
first papers, 14.9 per cent were unknown, and 20 per cent were 


• "Americana in Process," p. 272 . 


182 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


aliens.® Thus, politics directly affects considerably more than the 
majority of the immigrants. 

In the past this influence of politics upon the immigrants has 
done much to assimilate them. 10 Its effect today depends upon its 
local conditions. On the one hand, in many of the large indus¬ 
trial centers the political “boss” has some control over the immi¬ 
grant’s “job.” He orders him to vote for a certain candidate, 
and the immigrant, through fear of his displeasure, votes as he is 
told. The ballot, under such conditions, is not an exercise of a 
right, but of a compulsory order, whose every detail is deter¬ 
mined, not by the immigrant, but by the political boss. Such a 
condition does not mean the participation in government by the 
multitude, and certainly does not lead to a condition in which the 
workman will participate in the control of industry. It is the 
very opposite, for it tells the immigrant that his “job” belongs to 
him, not because of his right to work, but because of the pleasure 
of some other person. 

On the other hand, in the case of those immigrants who are 
not in the power of the political boss of the immigrant colonies, 
politics is one of the most striking differences between American 
life and life in their native country. When they vote it is an 
expression of their will, and inevitably spurs them on to learn 
how to express that will more intelligently. It tells them that 
they are part of society; that they have a voice in the control of 
their actions, and that their interests are not merely private, but 
are public. Every important step in our political system, to them, 
means further adoption of American life. 

(f) Miscellaneous Forces. 

The press acts as an Americanization force in the case of 
some immigrants. It does little, however, to assimilate those 
non-English-speaking nationalities who are becoming most im¬ 
portant as immigrants. The constant opposition of some newspapers 
against such immigrants as the Italians, Poles and Hungarians is 
likely to cause hostility between these immigrants and the 
Americans. Furthermore, the English press, in the case of these 
immigrants, can reach directly only the second generation, as in 
most instances the first generation cannot read the English lan- 

8 U. S. Census on Pop., 1900. 

10 Mayo-Smith, Pol. Sci. Qua., 9:665. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


183 

guage. There are some papers printed in the languages of these 
people, however, and these, while handicapped by the very lan¬ 
guage which they use, often convey American principles to the 
foreigners. Some of them discuss political, social and economic 
issues much as English papers do, and in this way tend to change 
the immigrant’s thought and activity. 

In the case of those nationalities who speak English and those 
who are welcomed to the United States by the newspapers, such 
as the English, Irish, Welsh, Scotch, Germans, and Scandina¬ 
vians, the English press acts as an assimilator. Yet even here it 
must be noted that many of the papers are ruled by the same 
spirit which dominates politics in some of the industrial centers. 

Little need be said of books and libraries * They tend to 
assimilate certain classes of immigrants, but they do not reach 
those who are hardest to assimilate and those who need it most 

Private immigrant aid societies, also, need but be mentioned. 
Only when more of them have been formed and when they have 
operated for some time can their real value be ascertained. 

Municipal governments are, also, beginning to undertake ac¬ 
tivities which tend to assimilate the immigrants, at least from the 
social standpoint. They prevent unsanitary tenement houses, 
thus forcing a change in the home life of some of the immigrants 
and improving their social condition. They introduce public 
playgrounds, which tend to throw the children of the immigrants 
into association with other children. They establish baths, they 
minimize drunkenness and make efforts to prevent pauperism. 
All this aids in the movement of assimilation. 

The theaters 11 popular amusements , 11 “boys' clubs” private so¬ 
cieties of various kinds, even American slang and the street life 
which prevails in the large cities, all act as assimilators. There 
is no more potent factor in the lives of some of the immigrant 
children than the influences which they meet on the streets. 

Finally, it is necessary to consider, briefly, the activity of the 
employer as an Americanizer. In this respect, employers must be 
considered as individuals and not a class, for many care nothing 
about Americanization, and others actually oppose it. Some of 
them, however, voluntarily give their workmen high wages, 
reasonable hours, and good physical and sanitary conditions of 

* This statement should now be modified in view of the recent wide 
extension of library activities for foreigners.—[Editor.] 

11 Mayo-Smith, Pol. Sci. Qua., 9:653. 


1S4 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


labor. In this way employers enable the immigrant to adopt the 
American standard of life, at least in the economic field. Again, 
in many instances employers have adopted the factory in prefer¬ 
ence to the sweatshop. The factory takes the immigrant out of 
his home and compels him to work with other workmen, many 
of whom are already Americanized and of different nationalities. 
Sometimes employers purposely employ men of different nation¬ 
alities to prevent clannishness. Besides, the factory system is in 
itself a revelation to the immigrant from southern Europe. It 
means the compulsory adoption of American methods. 

III. Conclusion 

The problem of the Americanization of the immigrant is very 
huge in proportion, and is becoming increasingly complex. The 
number of immigrants, together with the population of foreign 
parentage, might seem threatening to Americanism. This large 
bulk is annually increasing, and a greater and greater proportion 
of the increase each year consists of nationalities who are in¬ 
herently more difficult to Americanize than were the immigrants 
of the past. 

But, however rapidly the difficulties of Americanization may 
be increasing, the efficiency and activity of the forces of Amer¬ 
icanization are increasing even more rapidly. The most promis¬ 
ing field for Americanization is with the second generation, and 
it is here that the public school stands pre-eminent. The chief 
hope of Americanizing the adult immigrant lies with trade union¬ 
ism, whose rapid adoption of Americanization as a function is 
applauded even by those who condemn most of its policies. 
Physical environment, the church, politics, the employer, and 
also numerous miscellaneous forces exert an Americanizing in¬ 
fluence to a greater or less degree. 

New forces are being developed; old methods are, with some 
exceptions, being increasingly perfected. The problem, both in 
its increasing scope and complexity, is being met by the forces of 
Americanization. 

Annals Amer. Acad, of Pol. and Soc. Science. 27 : 653-75. May *06. 


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185 


SOME AMERICAN EFFORTS AT IMMIGRANT 
LEADERSHIP 

Archibald McClure 

STUDENT OF ALIEN PEOPLES. ANALYST OF AMERICANIZATION 

What are some of these efforts at American leadership and 
what is their effect on the immigrant people? 

Public Efforts 

The first touch which the immigrant has with the United 
States is with our Federal government through its men and 
equipment at the immigration ports of entry. This introduction 
to the United States is quite different from the first glimpse that 
a native born American has of his country. The government is 
for most of us one of the last things with which we have any 
necessary dealings; with the immigrants it is the first. Much 
depends, therefore, on the first impression which will be gained 
largely through the personal treatment given by the officials at 
Ellis Island, Angel Island, at Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia 
and the other ports of entry. Year by year the government is 
making conditions at these places more attractive. Due to the 
efforts of some of the men in the immigration service constant 
attempts are being made to give Ellis Island less the appear¬ 
ance of a prison, and more that of a place of hospitality and 
courtesy. Inadequate as its facilities will be if, after the war, 
immigration again soars up toward a million mark, it will yet be 
giving the strangers a less annoying welcome than was the case 
some years ago. The great hospitals, the provision of “kosher” 
meals for the Hebrew newcomers, the opportunities for play 
provided for those who are detained at the island, the Sunday 
afternoon concerts, are simply signs to the immigrant that the 
government is not a mere machine, but has a heart in its work 
as well. 

Although a commissioner of immigration on the Pacific 
Coast believes that the Chinese exclusion law was the best law 
Congress ever passed, and though he says he is racking his brain 
to think of ways in which to keep the Chinese out of the coun¬ 
try, quite a different spirit is manifested by the commissioner at 


i86 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Ellis Island. He turns his attention to efforts to make the 
treatment of the immigrants by the government as humanitarian 
and democratic as possible. Thus the personnel of the immigra¬ 
tion service often gives a different first impression of America 
to different immigrants. 

But after the immigrant has left Ellis Island the Federal 
government has done almost nothing for him, though Commis¬ 
sioner Howe says it is going to try to do more. So far its con¬ 
structive efforts beyond the walls of the immigrant stations have 
been centred about a distributing bureau, originally formed in 
1907, and given larger scope in 1914. Whereas the purpose of 
this Federal bureau, known as the Division of Information, 
Bureau of Immigration, U.S. Department of Labor, was to dis¬ 
tribute the new immigrants as far as possible to the farm and 
country districts, in actual practice the bureau has turned out to 
be a great Federal employment agency, which in 1915 found 
places for 11,871 applicants. This bureau, as yet hardly known 
to most Americans, has distributing branches in 18 cities, 
with sub-branches in more than 60 other centres, and is fast be¬ 
coming an important cog in the employment machinery of the 
country. In 1915 it had 90,119 applicants for positions. 

Through the Bureau of Naturalization of the Department of 
Labor the Federal government is also keeping in touch with its 
future citizens. This bureau has administrative authority over 
all matters concerning the naturalization of aliens. By co-op¬ 
erating with the public schools of the whole country, by provid¬ 
ing an outline course in citizenship, and by keeping record of the 
educational opportunities of all immigrants it is securing a more 
systematic provision for all immigrants to learn English and be¬ 
come citizens. 

Thus it is as a reception committee, as an employment com¬ 
mittee and as an educational committee that the Federal govern¬ 
ment exercises the functions of leadership among the immi¬ 
grants. 

Among the States, California is at present one of the few 
which is tackling the immigrant proposition in a big, constructive 
way, with a permanent “Immigration Commission.” Massachu¬ 
setts, New York and other states have had “Immigration Com¬ 
missions” of one or more years’ duration, but, having made their 
investigations and reports, most of these commissions have gone 
out of existence. As a result of the work of her commission, 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


187 


New York State established a Bureau of Industries and Immi¬ 
gration in 1910. Other states, such as Wisconsin, have at times 
had immigration commissions whose main purpose was merely 
to attract immigrants to that particular state. No attempts were 
made, after getting the immigrants to their states, to do anything 
for them. 

But as one of the members of the California Commission 
said, “California has the only good State commission.” Ap¬ 
pointed in 1913 as the “Commissions of Immigration and Hous¬ 
ing in California,” it consists of five members. Including a Ro¬ 
man Catholic bishop, a Presbyterian minister, the secretary of 
the California Federation of Labor, and a woman, it represents 
a variety of religious and economic interests. The list of con¬ 
tents of its second annual report in January, 1916, gives a clue to 
its activities: Labor Camp Inspection, Bureau of Complaints, 
Immigrant Education, Housing, Constructive Housing, Dis¬ 
tribution of Immigrants, Unemployment, Legislation. Having 
discovered that over one-half of the inhabitants of labor camps 
in California were immigrants, it attacked, and helped immedi¬ 
ately to better, many of the labor camp conditions. It has pub¬ 
lished leaflets for the education of the immigrant, draw r n up plans 
for model buildings for camps, and actually secured the erection 
of such buildings in construction camps. 

But most interesting of all is the plan it has worked out for 
solving the problem of “home education” for immigrant women. 
Realizing that the public schools are for the w'hole family, and 
that previously “we have reached out for every member of the 
family except the mother,” the California Commission is taking 
the next logical step—“ to educate the mother.” Briefly the plan 
is this— to have a few well-qualified women teachers go to the 
homes of the immigrant women, each teacher using a school as 
her headquarters; to visit, teach English, domestic science, sew¬ 
ing and sanitation, and make the immigrant women feel the 
personal interest of the school and teacher in them. It is felt 
that if the mothers are to learn American home standards and 
ideals the teacher must go to them. This is the first statewide 
attempt to use home teachers or “going-about women,” as the 
American Indians have been accustomed to call such teachers; 
and while the plan is still in its beginning it bids fair to be a far- 
reaching constructive effort to reach the immigrant home. Thus 
one state is taking the lead in an endeavour to meet the present 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


188 

situation and to be ready for any future immigration emergen¬ 
cies. 

The need of some such form of state leadership is brought 
home to us again and again, especially by such misfortunes as 
the failing of four private banks in immigrant communities in 
Chicago in the summer of 1916. Without attempts by the state 
governments to protect the trusting immigrants from such il¬ 
legitimate banking concerns, and to provide housing laws, such 
as are needed in New Jersey to enable local health authorities in 
its immigrant-laden industrial cities to protect them from the 
exploitation of careless landlords, there is bound to be little 
State loyalty among our immigrants. At present California and 
New York seem to be taking up the leadership in statewide work 
for immigrant welfare. 

When we turn to see what our cities are doing for their for¬ 
eign-speaking population the outlook seems more encouraging. 
City after city recently has taken cognizance of its duties in this 
line and is making a serious effort to tackle its job. Being closer 
to the immigrant than is the State, and having a more unified 
problem, the city can undertake its task more definitely. One of 
the first cities to undertake this work was Clevealnd. There a 
City Immigration Bureau was started as a part of the depart¬ 
ment of Public Welfare. “The City of Cleveland maintains this 
Bureau for the benefit of all immigrants coming from foreign 
countries. It assists those who intend to settle here and desire 
to become good American citizens. It gives you information 
and advice entirely free with reference to citizenship papers, em¬ 
ployment, and other important matters,” reads one of its pub¬ 
lications. Its activities include depot work, where a city immi¬ 
gration officer meets and assists newcomers when the tide of 
immigration is high; divisions of employment, education, citizen¬ 
ship, information and complaints, publicity and publications. It 
prints in nine languages small guide books of the city telling of 
its schools, English classes, social settlements, banks and baths; 
and prints a very useful “Citizenship Manual for Cleveland, 
Ohio.” It has joined with other organizations in a celebration 
of Americanization Day by giving a public reception to newly 
naturalized citizens. 

In ways such as these cities as cities are more and more be¬ 
ginning to take an interest in their own foreign-speaking inhab¬ 
itants. Detroit, Rochester, New York, Chicago and many other 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 189 

cities are arousing their civic conscience on this subject and arc 
seizing their opportunities. 

That there is need of cities of every size the country over 
doing something along these lines is well illustrated by the at¬ 
titude of a small but prominent residential suburb of Chicago. 
For three years it had a constantly increasing immigrant popula¬ 
tion which soon numbered over 200. But the city did nothing 
for them. Almost none of them could speak English, yet there 
were no classes provided to teach them. The only dealing the 
city had with these immigrant people was through its police de¬ 
partment, which had to make frequent visits to the immigrant 
boarding houses to enforce the sanitation and housing laws, and 
to arrest those who had imbibed too much of the liquor brought 
in by beer wagons to this “dry” town. At the city clerk’s office 
were no records of the numbers or nationalities of the city’s im¬ 
migrant population. In response to a letter written to him con¬ 
cerning these immigrants, who happened to be largely Roumani¬ 
ans from Hungary, the city clerk replied, speaking of them as 
“Lithuanians,” though there is as great a racial difference be¬ 
tween these two peoples as between any two races in all Europe. 
This shows merely one of the ways in which even in the year 
1916 many cities have neglected to care for their immigrant 
population. 

While in some places there is good city leadership among the 
immigrants, and total lack of city leadership in other places, 
there is also much unfortunate city leadership. This usually is 
due to the activities of the politicians and the lack of activities 
of the police. Many of our local politicians have been men of 
Irish extraction whose respect for the niceties of moral honor 
and political sincerity have impressed the immigrants more by 
their absence than by their presence. So much so that there is 
a rather surprising but almost universal dislike of the Irish 
among every one of our immigrant nationalities. An Italian 
professor of immigration and economics in New York University 
questioned in his mind, “Why is it that only the unscrupulous 
and not the best citizens have been in ward politics?” It has 
been mainly through these petty politicians that many an immi¬ 
grant has had his only contact with American life and citizen¬ 
ship—and it has not always been helpful. 

Unbelievable, too, are stories that are told of the treatment 
of the immigrants by the police. The ignorance of the foreigner, 


190 


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combined with the authority and hard-heartedness on the part 
of the individual police, have made their leadership hated and 
contemptible to many of our newcomers. 

It is time, therefore, that every city had its municipal con¬ 
sciousness aroused to providing helpful, constructive leadership 
to her immigrant population, instead of the repressive, unscrup¬ 
ulous leadership so often afforded by the police and politicians. 

There are two other institutions of a “public” nature that are 
making progress in caring for our immigrants. One is the pub¬ 
lic library. In Homestead, Pennsylvania, where one is in the 
heart of the immigrant industrial population, the Carnegie Li¬ 
brary stands on a prominent terrace overlooking the city. Here 
a splendid attempt is being made to have the library useful to 
the immigrant population as well as to the native Americans. It 
provides a night school class in the English language, and some¬ 
times gives outdoor picture shows in the “foreign” ward. So 
far back as 1912 it reported books in “Hungarian, Slovak, Bo¬ 
hemian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, French and Italian”; that 
“two-thirds of the children that use Juvenile room are of for¬ 
eign birth”; that eleven out of forty-one events in the Music 
Hall were given by foreigners; and that “among the literary and 
study clubs are the Slovak American Literary Club with ninety 
or more members, the Hungarian Self Culture Society of equal 
size, the Greek Catholic Dramatic Club with a membership of 
twenty-five, and the Slavok Citizens Club with forty members.” 
Its splendid equipment as a social centre building makes possible 
many of its activities, which are suggestive of what any library 
may attempt. 

The Portland, Oregon, Public Library had adopted an inter¬ 
esting method of reaching the immigrant population. Each 
month it secures a list of the men who have taken out their “first 
papers” for citizenship, and sends to each of them a personal 
letter telling the location of the library, offering to aid them 
with books on “citizenship,” and mentioning that magazines, 
papers, and books in many foreign languages are to be found 
there. 

At Seattle one of the librarians has gone in person to many 
of the night school classes to invite the men to the library. Lists 
of books in their language were sent to various foreign societies, 
a list of “Graded Readings” from the simpler to the higher 
forms of English literature, and a list of books of which the li¬ 
brary contains both an English and a foreign translation have 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


191 


been made. While sometimes it is difficult to know what books 
to secure in these foreign languages, as in the case of some 
Croatian books asked for by a Croatian society, “to educate their 
people’' in Seattle, and never used except once by the members 
of the society itself, yet public libraries can often supplement 
the work of other organizations in a way very helpful to the im¬ 
migrant. 

The Webster Branch of the New York City Public Library 
devotes one entire floor of its three-story building to a Bohe¬ 
mian department. Here, under a capable Bohemian librarian, 
it has 7,000 Bohemian volumes, a great variety of Bohemian 
magazines and newspapers, and a collection of Bohemian music. 
At times it gives exhibitions of Bohemian art and embroidery, 
while a committee of Bohemians helps in the selection of the 
books. Such a national department is possible only in the 
larger cities where one can find large colonies of one nationality 
in one locality, but it is very suggestive of the educational leader¬ 
ship the libraries are trying to afford. 

Last but not least of public factors in immigrant leadership 
—in fact the most important and most indispensable factor in 
the unification of all our immigrant population—is the public 
school. We take its work so much as a matter of course that 
we often fail to grasp the tremendous influence it has in mould¬ 
ing “all comers” into potential Americans. It in itself is largely 
the reason that English eventually supplants all the mother 
tongues of Europe in the life of her children in America. In 
many of the New York City schools one looks in vain for a 
child whose American ancestry is even one generation old. At 
one school 90 per cent of the children are Italians; at another, 
one can go into a class where Bohemians and Hungarians pre¬ 
dominate, and only a smattering of Irish and English are to be 
found. However, in the school it is hard to differentiate be¬ 
tween the children. They are all alike, just “kids,” whether they 
are Bohemian or Hungarian, Italian, or Russian. The principal 
of a school will often say that he can not tell which nationality 
is the brighter for “They are all alike—just boys; some good, 
some dull.” 

It is really inspiring to have an opportunity to visit one of 
these big city schools to see with what orderliness and efficiency 
the whole day goes on, the confidence with which the teachers 
do their work, and the healthy American training they give the 


192 


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children. The drill in the use of English grammar and the class 
in American history are potent factors in the day’s work. The 
influence of the schools is largely the result of their steady, 
daily, yearly teaching and atmosphere. They turn out Amer¬ 
icans, who in turn help to make their homes American in spirit, 
and thus the school influence pervades the community. 

In addition to this regular school work, there are public 
schools, such as the one with the Gary system in The Bronx, 
New York City, which take some active interest in the com¬ 
munity and endeavour to make the school the centre of interest, 
entertainment, education and progress for a whole neighbor¬ 
hood. Playgrounds, gardens, joint efforts to eliminate neigh¬ 
borhood gangs of “rowdies,” club meetings, lectures and con¬ 
certs have made this school, under the leadership of an Italian 
principal, the biggest factor in a great Italian section of the city. 

The great spread of the movement for teaching English to 
the immigrants has brought the schools new opportunities. In 
Paterson, in the winter of 1915-16 there were twelve classes held 
four nights a week for sixteen weeks with over 375 pupils, men 
and women. Here was a personal contact of the schools with the 
immigrants, of the teachers with the immigrants. In Rochester 
immigrant training was begun and carried on by the Board of 
Education, which established a special department of immigrant 
education. During the past year it has had 2,500 on its lists for 
these classes. Los Angeles has awakened to its possibilities and 
her schools are very active in their work of teaching English. 

That there has been need of an awakening of this kind by 
school boards is evidenced by the refusal of a school board in a 
West Virginia town to let one of its rooms be used by an Amer¬ 
ican woman to teach English at night, though the schools were 
not themselves doing any work of this kind. Again, two years 
ago, some Poles in a New Jersey city offered to secure and pay 
for a teacher of English if the school board would only let them 
use a room at night. But the board refused because of the extra 
cost for light, heat and janitor service. 

On the whole, however, the public schqpls are doing more for 
the advancement of the immigrant population than any other 
agency in the country. They are effective leaders. 

Private Efforts 

The increase on the part of large business concerns of the 
general “welfare” work among their employes, and the aroused 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


193 


interest in the immigrants due to the “hyphen” hysteria of the 
last year have resulted in fresh activity by business houses in 
behalf of their immigrant employees. In Detroit the Board of 
Commerce in August and September of 1915 conducted a large 
campaign of “Americanization” which resulted in an increase in 
the night school registration of 153 per cent. Many unique 
methods were put into use, such as inserting slips about the night 
schools in the pay envelopes of the men, providing rooms in the 
shops for classes in English, and urging the great industries of 
the city to give a preference in promoting workmen to those 
who had become citizens. Thus the immigrant workmen have 
come to feel that “big business” has some interest in them and is 
trying to lead them somewhere. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad recently established a young Ital¬ 
ian, a graduate of Yale University, at the head of work among 
the 10,000 Italian men employed on their lines. He has now 3,000 
Italians in educational work by means of correspondence les¬ 
sons; he has prepared an Italian-English Naturalization booklet; 
he seeks to have them become citizens; advises with them on 
investing their earnings, and goes among them to try and coun¬ 
teract the effect of occasional I. W. W. agitators and settle labor 
misunderstandings. 

In such ways “big business” is beginning to have more a 
place of leadership as it takes a keener interest in the immigrant 
employees as men, rather than as mere business units. 

Coming down a little closer to the immigrant himself, we find 
that among workmen the labor unions have since 1900 become 
more and more important. As the American Federation of La¬ 
bor has no statistics in regard to the nationality of the member¬ 
ship in the organizations affiliated with it, it is difficult to know 
exactly how strong its influence is among the immigrant nation¬ 
alities. In the anthracite region of Pennsylvania the miners are 
well organized and nearly all the men are union members. In 
some of these coal mining districts the union “locals” are or¬ 
ganized largely along national lines—a Ruthenian local, a Polish 
local, a Slovak local—but this is not true as a general rule 
throughout the country. The feature of the unions and other 
labor organizations which has made them factors in welding 
together the interests of members with varying European ances¬ 
try has been that in these unions all have been brought together 


194 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


on the common ground of an American need for better working 
and living conditions. 

Yet much of the unskilled labor of the country, which is 
largely composed of the immigrants, is altogether unorganized. 
Thus in Passaic, New Jersey, there is practically no labar or¬ 
ganization, for a large percentage of its industrial workers are 
unskilled. The labor unions, except in certain industries, have 
not been in as close touch with the immigrants as one would 
have expected. One reason seems to be that union organization 
has been rather among skilled labor than among the unskilled, 
while the immigrants largely make up our unskilled labor forces. 
Another reason has been the occasional race discrimination 
shown by the unions against the Italians, as well as against the 
Chinese and Japanese. This has caused friction between the im¬ 
migrants and the unions. 

In teaching the English language and in arousing the desire 
for a better economic condition among its immigrant members 
the labor union has exercised an educational leadership over 
our immigrant population. But it is doubtful if its influence has 
been as great as its numbers would lead one to suspect. 

When we turn from business and labor to the field of re¬ 
ligion we find that the American churches have begun to realize 
the demands upon them of the immigrant population. The im¬ 
migrant may feel this at Ellis Island, where the churches vie 
with the government in giving the newcomers their first contact 
with America. There are now at the Island twenty-five mission¬ 
aries and workers representing some thirteen evangelical de¬ 
nominations, distributing literature, investigating, individual cases 
and rendering assistance to many a bewildered recent arrival. 

Nearly all the great Protestant church bodies have a depart¬ 
ment for the supervision of immigrant work. Through pastors, 
either native or foreign born, who speak both English and some 
immigrant tongue, through English lessons, clubs and settlements 
they are attempting to meet the situation. Since they have taken 
up this work so recently they have not as yet had a very great 
influence on our immigrant population as a whole. But as the 
years go by their increasing efforts and their broader plans are 
sure to exert a constantly growing influence on the minds and 
hearts of our immigrant population. 

One of the most active forces at work among our “foreign- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


195 


ers” is the Y. M. C. A. It has an immigration secretary in many 
of our large cities. Its labors have been largely of two kinds— 
depot work, meeting immigrants at railroad stations in order to 
direct them safely to their destinations; and classes in teaching 
English. During these last two years, due to the decrease in im¬ 
migration, their depot work has practically ceased, while the 
need for English classes has also somewhat abated. But the 
Y. M. C. A. continues to serve the immigrants through lectures, 
moving pictures, and other means of education. 

One interesting phase of their work has been the way in 
which they have aroused interest among college men in such 
work. This collegiate touch with the immigrant has been largely 
through English classes. In 1915-1916, after seven years, the 
Y. M. C. A. had secured the assistance of 4,000 workers in 250 
colleges, with 100,000 foreigners directly affected. This work has 
been of inestimable value. 

The Y. W. C. A. carries on its immigration work through 
what it calls “The International Institutes.” It is doing more 
for our immigrant women than any other one organization— 
teaching English, having girls’ clubs, doing friendly visiting. In 
New York City it has one club of sixty Greek girls, a rather 
unique organization because until lately there have been so few 
Greek girls in this country. In Los Angeles they use as head¬ 
quarters a house in the Russian section of the city where they 
have club meetings, sewing classes and English classes. In such 
ways the Y. W. C. A. is endeavouring to care for those most 
neglected of all our immigrant population—the women and 
mothers. 

There are numerous other efforts put forth on behalf of the 
immigrants by private organizations. In Chicago is the Immi¬ 
grants’ Protective League under the efficient management of 
Miss Grace Abbott. As you enter its office you find a sign of 
information in ten languages; when you reach the office you dis¬ 
cover that they have seven or eight investigators and workers 
of as many different nationalities. A purely voluntary organiza¬ 
tion, it renders station help, looks up individual cases of need 
and every year tries to study some particular phase of the im¬ 
migration situation in Chicago. Thus in early 1916, after a study 
of the conditions among the Greek bootblacks, the attention of 
the American Federation of Labor was called to their un¬ 
fortunate conditions and an effort made to unionize them. 


196 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Later a study was made of the cases of those who had dropped 
out of the night school English classes, in order that suggestions 
might be made to the Board of Education for stopping this leak¬ 
age. 

The National Americanization Committee of New York City, 
with Miss Frances Kellor at its head, has as its purpose the 
Americanization of the immigrants. It endeavors to be a 
standardizing agency, or clearing house of information, for all 
work among immigrants. When any one wants to know how to 
go about solving some immigrant community problem this Com¬ 
mittee will furnish information as to how to do it, and some¬ 
times furnish practical assistance in doing it as well. Thus they 
sent down a doctor to Hopewell, Virginia, to assist in the work 
there at the time of the great fire in the spring of 1916. Besides 
the work of furthering classes in English and civics, co-operating 
with Chambers of Commerce (as they did in the recent Detroit 
campaign), and working through national societies such as the 
Polish National Alliance, they are endeavouring to arouse inter¬ 
est among American people in the immigrant situation. 

To meet the need expressed by a member of the California 
Immigration Commission, who said, “I think the American peo¬ 
ple need to be awakened on this subject,” the Americanization 
Committee, in conjunction with “The Committee for immigrants 
in America,” publishes quarterly The Immigrants in America 
Review* holds conferences and is carrying on an extensive ed¬ 
ucational campaign throughout the whole country. 

Yet again such organizations as the Colonial Dames, which 
prints a “Primer of Civics” in three or four immigrant lan¬ 
guages; the Sons of the American Revolution with its pamphlet, 
“Information for Immigrants concerning the United States”; 
the Naturalization Education Company of Pittsburg with its 
“Naturalization Instructions” in nine languages, and many other 
societies are coming forward with a new interest in our immi¬ 
grant population. 

Here and there our American newspapers are taking cog¬ 
nizance of the opportunity for them to serve our immigrant 
people. The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Pittsburg Post 
every day have a “Cosmopolitan” page on which news of interest 
to the different nationalities of these cities is given. In this way 
the American community has a fresh chance to become ac¬ 
quainted with the thought and life of the immigrant Americans, 

* Six issues were published, beginning January, 1915. [Editor]. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


197 


while the immigrants themselves feel that they are at last re¬ 
ceiving some of the notice they deserve. By such means as this, 
or by columns in various foreign languages such as the Italian 
column of one of the New York City daily papers, the Amer¬ 
ican press is beginning to get in touch with the immigrant peo¬ 
ple. 

Along with the work of many settlements and other organ¬ 
izations the country over, these are some of the efforts, both 
public and private, at American leadership of the immigrant. 
While so many of these attempts at American leadership ap¬ 
proach the immigrants through the idea of ‘Americanizing” 
them, it must be remembered, as Miss Balch says, that you can¬ 
not force Americanization on the immigrants. Helpful as all 
these efforts are, the ones which have in them the added fea¬ 
ture of personal, individual interest and sympathy with the in¬ 
dividual immigrant are the ones whose leadership is most effec¬ 
tive, and whose efforts are bound to be the most useful. 

Training For Protestant Religions Leadership 

The older type of leader holds his own among the adult and 
more ignorant immigrants, but among the younger people leaders 
with new and progressive ideas are coming into prominence. 
American ideals of democracy, freedom and education, and 
American labor conditions are casting the immigrant’s mind in 
new moulds into which the old country leaders do not fit. More 
and more each nationality is demanding in its leaders intelli¬ 
gence, education and acquaintance with social conditions. 

What sort of leaders has the Protestant church in America 
furnished to our immigrants? Are they of the old order or the 
new? This is an important consideration, for Prof. Steiner has 
well said, “The one institution in America most gravely con¬ 
cerned with the coming and staying of the immigrant is the Prot¬ 
estant church." The leadership which the Protestant church 
furnishes will in large measure affect the future of our country. 
If it is wise, strong, and constructive these immigrants, who are 
the future Americans, will accept and practise the principles of 
Christ; if it is weak, narrow and unintelligent, spiritual truth 
will not find believers among our next generation. 

The strength of the Protestant church leadership so far pro¬ 
vided the immigrants has lain in the personalities of certain in¬ 
dividual pastors. Where men of forceful character have gone 


198 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


into an immigrant community, their influence has been great 
Such is an Italian pastor in New York City of whom an Amer¬ 
ican minister said that he was perhaps the outstanding leader 
among the Italians of his neighbourhood. Born to command, 
unafraid of any kind of opposition (and he has encountered 
every kind), he is full of common sense and personal magnet¬ 
ism. Still another example is a Hungarian Protestant pastor in 
one of Ohio’s industrial cities, who because of his powerful per¬ 
sonality has made himself almost a “pope” among his people. 
These men are men of combined character and education. 

On the other hand, the weakness of Protestant church work 
among the immigrants has usually been in the lack of training 
of its pastors. In their anxiety to send workers among the for¬ 
eign population of the country the churches have sometimes 
manned fields with foreign-speaking pastors poorly educated, or 
poorly trained in an understanding of American Protestant 
Christianity. Ex-Roman Catholic priests, and men whose meagre 
education prevented them from grasping the problems they had 
to face, have thus oftimes retarded the spread of American 
evangelical Christianity among the immigrants. These men must 
necessarily fall by the wayside when they face the intelligent, 
progressive minds of the new leaders among the younger immi¬ 
grant generation, with all their knowledge of social welfare and 
unrest. 

Henceforth Protestant religious leaders must be well trained 
for dealing with our immigrant situation. Leaders are born, not 
made, since the pre-eminent qualification for leadership is per¬ 
sonality; and you cannot make personality; like Topsy, “it just 
grows.” But men can be developed to assume positions of lead¬ 
ership by being trained to see the direction in which the paths 
of progress lead. By having these paths pointed out, and by 
learning how to lead their people into them, men may become 
successful in arousing a response from people of their own na¬ 
tionality. It is in such ways that the qualities of leadership 
must be developed among those who are to be engaged in Prot¬ 
estant religious work among the foreign-speaking people of the 
United States. 

In doing this work one of three types of people is required— 
either a foreign-born pastor who knows English (including in 
this group those of foreign blood born in America), or an 
American, native by birth and blood, who knows a foreign 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


199 


tongue or perhaps is associated with a foreign-speaking worker. 
At present both types of leader is needed. 

Of course the work done in the foreign languages among our 
immigrant people is, and always must be, a transitional work. 
It will be necessary only so long as the arrival of new immi¬ 
grants keeps up. If immigration were absolutely prohibited from 
now on, after some twenty-five years all work among our pop¬ 
ulation of foreign blood could be carried on in English, for all 
would understand English, and the older generation of foreign- 
born would have passed off the scene of action. But now, and 
until some twenty-five years after the last immigrant has reached 
our shores, the use of the native tongue in work among our new 
citizens will be necessary. 

There is question as to the type of worker best suited to this 
task. The foreign-born worker has the advantage of an intel¬ 
ligent knowledge of the language and customs of his own people, 
and is best prepared to understand them. Yet he often has but 
a general knowledge of English, and is apt to retain a foreign 
accent all his life. Whereas he is best suited to reach the adult 
immigrants he is sometimes not so successful among the children, 
who, educated in our public schools, are apt to think themselves 
better than the man who cannot speak English without an ac¬ 
cent. Again, he does not always fully understand American 
ideals or American evangelical Christianity. 

A native-born American has the advantage of understanding 
clearly our language, customs, and ideas, and with the children 
he does not need to know any language except English. But 
when he comes to dealing with the parents, he is under a handi¬ 
cap unless he knows their language. Even then he is apt always 
to have an incorrect accent in speaking the foreign tongue. 

The third type is composed of those who, though born or en¬ 
tirely educated in America, are yet the sons of immigrants. 
Sometimes such men combine both the good qualities of the other 
two types; sometimes they have the weaknesses of both. In the 
one case they are the best possible men to meet the situation; 
in the other case they need much training to insure their useful¬ 
ness. Such, are the Italian or Ruthenian young men brought up 
in Italian or Ruthenian neighborhoods, where only Italian or 
Ruthenian is spoken at home or on the streets, and whose 
American schooling has gone no further than the eighth grade. 
They will often speak both English and their mother tongue in- 


200 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


correctly because of their environment, where there has been 
little opportunhy to hear either language well spoken. In con¬ 
sequence, they are ill equipped for positions of leadership among 
either Italians, Ruthenians or Americans. 

The theological training which one needs for effective work 
among the immigrants is entirely subordinate to the prime re¬ 
quisite of personal character. This must be the first and neces¬ 
sary qualification. In the past twenty years, from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, there have been so many failures in this respect 
that the churches must give great attention to this point. Par¬ 
ticular care should be taken in the case of men who seek church 
work as ex-Catholic priests converted to Protestantism. There 
have been cases where men with bad records in the Roman 
church have become apparently converted to Protestantism; the 
Protestants have used their voices to raise thanksgivings to 
Pleaven for these conversions, without using their eyes and ears 
to search out the truth of the facts in every case. The existence 
of even a few such instances is sufficient to emphasize the neces¬ 
sity for Christlike character on the part of all immigrant religious 
workers. 

Then, too, in Europe even Protestantism and its ministers 
differ from Protestantism and its ministers in America. In Hun¬ 
gary, where there are several million Protestants, Protestantism 
has become to a large extent a mere form, empty of the meaning 
of daily brotherhood. American Protestants must remember this 
in dealing with some of the Slovak and Magyar Protestants of 
our immigrant population, who with their old country ways have 
not thought drinking and dancing inconsistent accompaniments 
of church socials. 

Foreign-speaking Immigrant Religious Leaders 

What opportunities are at present offered for the training of 
these men of foreign birth or parentage who wish to give them¬ 
selves to religious work among our Southern European immi¬ 
grant population? 

The Congregational Church has a Slavic department at Ober- 
lin Theological Seminary, Oberlin, Ohio. Here, under the super¬ 
vision of a Bohemian professor, there were in the year 1915- 
1916 four Bohemian and four Slovak students for the ministry. 
Students are accepted who have had a high school course or its 
equivalent, and a three year theological course is given them. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


201 


The instruction is partly in English, partly in Bohemian, in order 
that the men may be well trained in each language. While the 
prerequisities of this course are not high, the work it does is 
thorough, and the contact of the Slavic students with Lhc Amer¬ 
ican college and seminary students is advantageous. 

At Berea, Ohio, the Methodist Church has also a Slavic de¬ 
partment in the Baldwin-Wallace College and Nast Theological 
Seminary, in which during the winter of 1915-16 there were 
over twenty immigrant students—most of whom were Bohe¬ 
mians and Slovaks. As at Oberlin, this department is under the 
supervision of a Slavic professor. A high school course, or its 
equivalent, is required of these Slavic students if they are to 
take the full theological course of three years. The fact that 
this seminary is composed of students largely for the German 
ministry makes the atmosphere with which the Slavic students 
are surrounded less definitely American than at such an institu¬ 
tion as Oberlin. 

The Baptists have approached the question of religious train¬ 
ing more along the line of nationality. Thus in Brooklyn they 
have for the training of Italian Baptist ministers the Italian 
department of Colgate Theological Seminary. In 1915-16 the 
Italian professor in charge had twelve students who lived in the 
mission house of an Italian Baptist church. The students thus 
had no contact with American student life. The course is a 
three-year one, along theological lines, no especial educational 
equipment being demanded as a prerequisite of entrance. Three 
Italian ministers and one American woman compose the faculty. 

In Cleveland the Baptists have a separate Hungarian training 
school, where in 1915-16 there were ten students under the in¬ 
struction of two Hungarian ministers and one American woman. 
A four year course is given, the classes meeting in the rear room 
of the Hungarian church. The preparation of most of these stu¬ 
dents previous to beginning their course had been only equivalent 
to a grade school education. 

In Chicago is the Slavic Baptist Training School. Here, un¬ 
der a Polish and a Bohemian pastor, about twenty Polish, Ru- 
thenian, Bohemian and Slovak young men have begun courses 
varying in length from three to six years. The dormitories and 
classrooms are simply rooms in the Bohemian Baptist church. 
The students previous to entering this school have had but little 
education. 


J02 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Each of these Baptist schools is small, each has meagre 
equipment in the line of dormitory and class room facilities. In 
each the lack of a sufficient faculty, of touch with American life, 
of a thorough educational training is evident. Yet each is striv¬ 
ing to grow in efficiency and ability to meet the demands of the 
situation. 

At Bloomfield, New Jersey, and at Dubuque, Iowa, the Pres¬ 
byterian Church has institutions which now provide academy, 
college, and theological seminary training for students of many 
immigrant nationalities. Originally founded to train men for 
work among our German speaking immigrants, in response to 
the demand of the new immigration, these schools have become 
cosmopolitan institutions. In equipment and size they outstrip 
the provision made by any other denomination for its immigrant 
workers. Each has buildings and campus of its own, and a large 
faculty. Thus Bloomfield Theological Seminary in 1915-16 had 
some ninety students distributed about as follows: twenty-five 
Hungarians, sixteen Italians, fifteen Russians, fifteen Ruthenians, 
ten Germans, seven Poles, one American, and one Roumanian 
Jew. The Hungarians, Italians, Ruthenians, Russians, Germans 
and Poles each have a professor who teaches their native lan¬ 
guage, literature and history, and has general charge of the stu¬ 
dents of his own nationality. 

Leadership of the New America; racial and religious, p. 257 seq. New 
York, George H. Doran Co., 1916. 


SCHOOLS 

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 

John Dewey 

EDUCATOR, PHILOSOPHER, WORLD-THINKER 

It is fatal for a democracy to permit the formation of fixed 
classes. Differences of wealth, the existence of large masses of 
unskilled laborers, contempt for work with the hands, inability 
to secure the training which enables one to forge ahead in life, 
all operate to produce classes, and to widen the gulf between 
them. Statesmen and legislation can do something to combat 
these evil forces. Wise philanthropy can do something. But 
the only fundamental agency for good is the public school system. 
Every American is proud of what has been accomplished in the 
past in fostering among very diverse elements of population a 
spirit of unity and of brotherhood so that the sense of common 
interests and aims has prevailed over the strong forces working 
to divide our people into classes. The increasing complexity of 
our life, with the great accumulation of wealth at one social 
extreme and the condition of almost dire necessity at the other 
makes the task of democracy constantly more difficult. The days 
are rapidly passing when the simple provision of a school system 
in which all individuals mingle is enough to meet the need. The 
subject-matter and the methods of teaching must be positively 
and aggressively adapted to the end. 

There must not be one system for the children of parents 
who have more leisure and another for the children of those who 
are wage-earners. The physical separation forced by such a 
scheme, while unfavorable to the development of a proper mutual 
sympathy, is the least of its evils. Worse is the fact that the 
over bookish education for some and the over “practical” educa¬ 
tion for others brings about a division of mental and moral hab¬ 
its, ideals, and outlook. 

The academic education turns out future citizens with no 
sympathy for work done with the hands, and with absolutely 
no training for understanding the most serious of present day 


304 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


social and political difficulties. The trade training will turn out 
future workers who may have greater immediate skill than 
they would have had without their training, but who have no en¬ 
largement of mind, no insight into the scientific and social sig¬ 
nificance of the work they do, no education which assists them in 
finding their way on or in making their own adjustments. A 
division of the public school system into one part which pursues 
traditional methods, with incidental improvements, and another 
which deals with those who are to go into manual labor means 
a plan of social predestination totally foreign to the spirit of a 
democracy. 

The democracy which proclaims equality of opportunity as 
its ideal requires an education in which learning and social ap¬ 
plication, ideas and practice, work and recognition of the mean¬ 
ing of what is done, are united from the beginning and for all. 
Such schools—the Schools of Tomorrow—are rapidly coming 
into being in large numbers, and are showing how the ideal of 
equal opportunity for all is to be transmitted into reality. 

Schools of Tomorrow, pp. 313-16. New York, E. P. Dutton & co, 1915. 


COMPULSORY EDUCATION 

John T. Buchanan 

EDUCATOR, ORGANIZER OF SCHOOLS 

Education will solve every problem of our national life, even 
that of assimilating our foreign element. The ameliorating ef¬ 
fects of general education would be evident in a decade in every 
manifestation of social life. Knowledge is light, and evil dies 
in the light. Ignorance is the mother of anarchy, poverty and 
crime. The nation has a right to demand intelligence and virtue 
of every citizen, and to obtain these by force if necessary'. Com¬ 
pulsory education we must have as a safeguard for our institu¬ 
tions. What other element of our country’s progress is so im¬ 
portant? In the language of the principles set forth by the Na¬ 
tional Educational Association, let me say that the progress and 
happiness of a people are in direct ratio to the universality of ed¬ 
ucation. A free people must be developed by free schools. His¬ 
tory records that the stability of a nation depends upon the virtue 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


205 


and intelligence of the individuals composing it. The child has 
the same right to be protected by law from ignorance as from 
abuse, neglect or hunger. 

We have said that the younger generation of immigrants can 
be reached by education. But this education must be com¬ 
pulsory. For, while these people are usually thrifty they are 
often lacking in foresight; and the manufacturer, the shop¬ 
keeper, the telegraph company and many others that employ help 
offer a thousand inducements here to the boy and girl to earn a 
dollar, even if it be at the risk of losing a chance of going to 
school. It is a strange fact that some of the foreigners whose 
country is known for the general, thorough education which it 
bestows upon all its children are those who are most inclined to 
reject all the inducements of our public-school system, and to 
allow, nay to urge, their children to stay away from school, that 
they may earn money at an age when they ought to be interested 
in books. And yet compulsory education in this country is to a 
great extent a far easier matter than it proves to be in European 
countries—no tuition fees; in many places free books and school 
supplies; all people treated alike; no distinction between the 
masses and the classes. 

What does compulsory education carry with it? (1) The 
pupil’s very association with intellectual and honorable men and 
women tends to inspire toward higher standards of living. The 
children soon find themselves in wider horizons of thought. (2) 
It brings children of all ranks together. They all feel that they 
belong to one and the same great family or nation. (3) It en¬ 
ables them to acquire a thorough knowledge of English, not the 
slangy English of the street, but good idiomatic, grammatical 
English. (4) It gives the child an opportunity to get a knowl¬ 
edge of the country in which he lives, of the government under 
which he exists, and of the people of whom he is to be a part. 
He learns that while he needs the country, the country needs him 
too; that he is to be a sovereign limited in his powers by such 
laws only as he himself may help to create, and by such restric¬ 
tions as modern civilization places upon him as being, upon the 
whole, for the good of all; that there is no one below him, and 
no one above him except those whom he may some day help to 
elect to attend to the business which his country demands. 


Forum. 32:686-94. February, 1902. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


ao6 


EDUCATING A NATION 

Philander P. Claxton 

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 

Education, as a national problem, has two fields: one the 
child, from the kindergarten age until the age of majority has 
been reached; the other, the illiterate adults. 

The problem of adult illiteracy as it confronts us today is 
no longer one of race or section. The importance of the task 
of eliminating illiteracy cannot be underestimated, when we 
consider that there are nearly 6,000,000 illiterates in the United 
States, nearly all of whom have reached their majority. The 
full meaning of these figures will be better understood if I 
say that in double line of march, at intervals of three feet, these 
illiterate persons would extend over a distance of about 1,500 
miles; that marching at the rate of twenty-five miles a day 
it would require more than two months for them to pass a given 
point. A mighty army is this, with banners of darkness in¬ 
scribed with the legends of illiteracy and ignorance, helpless¬ 
ness and hopelessness—too large for the greatest degree of ma¬ 
terial prosperity and for the safety of our democratic institu¬ 
tions. The last census showed that there were more than two 
million illiterate males of voting age; in some states and in 
many counties the illiterate voters hold the balance of power 
in any closely contested election. 

Illiteracy, as I have said, pervails to a greater extent in rural 
districts than in cities; the greatest number of illiterates is 
between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five years. In 1910 
the total number of white illiterates was greater by nearly one 
million than the total of negro illiterates. Massachusetts had 
more illiterate men of voting age than Arkansas; Pennsylvania 
more than Tennessee and Kentucky combined. Boston had 
nearly 25,000 illiterates, Baltimore 20,000, New Orleans 19,000, 
Memphis 9,000. 

Sporadic efforts show us that there is a shorter way to the 
reduction and elimination of illiteracy than to wait for time to 
do away with it. These grown-ups can be taught in schools 
organized especially for them. 

Independent. 87:224. August 14, 1916, 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


307 


EDUCATION OF IMMIGRANTS 

H. H. Wheaton 

SPECIALIST IN IMMIGRANT EDUCATION, UNITED STATES 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

Some of the standards established by State constitutions are 
unfortunate. In effect, the provisions in many State constitu¬ 
tions operate against the establishment and extension of evening- 
school facilities, through which, primarily, the non-English- 
speaking foreigner must be reached. Such is the case in the 
States of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, 
New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, 
South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming. In these States 
the constitutions, in most instances, authorize the legislature to 
provide for establishment and organization of free schools only 
for children within the ages of 6 and 21 years. Some of these 
States restrict the division of State school funds so that only 
children 21 years of age or under are the beneficiaries. In only 
one constitution, that of California, are evening schools specif¬ 
ically mentioned by name, and their establishment authorized. 
While it is true that, under existing rules of legal construction, 
constitutional provisions in the other States enumerated do not 
prohibit legislatures appropriating money from general State 
funds for the support of evening schools and do not make im¬ 
possible the maintenance of evening schools by local communi¬ 
ties, yet the fact that State school moneys can not be used except 
for children below the ages of 18 or 21 years discourages legis¬ 
latures from separate appropriation for evening-school purposes, 
and operates do discourage local communities from maintaining 
such facilities on their own financial responsibility without State 
aid. 


EVENING-SCHOOL LEGISLATION 

Most legislative provisions applicable to evening schools are 
permissive in nature so far as establishment of evening schools 
by local communities is concerned. Massachusetts and Connec¬ 
ticut are exceptions to the rule. They require, under certain 
conditions, that evening schools must be maintained. In Massa- 


208 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


chusetts, every city or town in which labor certificates are 
granted within the year to 20 or more persons to whom the 
literacy law applies must maintain an evening school during the 
following year. In Connecticut, every town having a population 
of 10,000 or more is required to establish and maintain such 
schools for the instruction of persons over 14 years of age. In 
other States, evening schools must be established by local com¬ 
munities, provided a stipulated number of residents present a 
formal petition. This is the case in Indiana, where night schools 
must be established in cities of over 3,000 inhabitants upon the 
petition of 20 or more inhabitants having children between the 
ages of 14 and 21 years, necessarily employed during the day, who 
will attend such evening schools. Practically the same require¬ 
ment affects Baltimore County, Md., except that the petition must 
be signed by 20 persons over 12 years of age who desire to attend 
evening school. In Pennsylvania, the provision is mandatory in 
second, third, and fourth class school districts upon the applica¬ 
tion of 25 parents of pupils above the age of 14 years who are 
residents of the school district. 

On the other hand, legislative provisions making the establish¬ 
ment of evening schools entirely optional on the part of local 
boards of education have been passed in several of the principal 
immigration States, such as California, New Jersey, New York, 
Ohio, and Wisconsin. In fact, this seems to be the standard 
adopted by most legislatures. The result is that evening-school 
facilities are not maintained in a large number of communities 
where a genuine demand and need exists. Even in those cities 
where facilities are established they are usually considered merely 
adjuncts to the day-school system, rather than an integral part 
of the educational system. Thus in the principal immigration 
States above specifically mentioned the number of communities 
maintaining evening schools is surprising^ low. In New York, 
with a foreign-born white population of 2,729,272, the largest in 
the entire country, a State having 148 urban centers with over 
2,500 inhabitants, and 71 urban centers with over 1,000 foreign- 
born whites, the number of cities maintaining evening schools is 
only 41. In Pennsylvania, the number is slightly higher, 42, but 
is really lower when taken in connection with the fact that this 
State has 263 urban centers with 2,500 inhabitants and 127 such 
centers with 1,000 foreign-born whites. New Jersey has only 30 
communities with evening schools, as against 61 urban centers 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


309 


with over 1,000 foreign-born whites; Ohio, 20 as against 40; Cali¬ 
fornia, 9 as against 30; Wisconsin, 19 as against 38. On the 
other hand, Massachusetts, owing to the operation of its manda¬ 
tory evening-school law, has 65 communities with evening schools, 
as against 117 communities with over 1,000 foreign-born whites. 
In Connecticut, every city over 10,000, with the exception of one, 
a wealthy suburban community which has no reason to comply 
with the State law, maintains evening schools pursuant to the 
mandatory provisions above referred to. No State during the 
past two years has passed any legislation making the establish¬ 
ment of evening schools mandatory. 

In commenting upon legislative standards, mention should 
be made of the fact that during the last year a method of secur¬ 
ing the establishment of evening schools has come into common 
use although not required by law in any considerable number of 
States; namely, petition of immigrants desiring evening-school 
instruction in English and civics. The Bureau of Education is 
in receipt of a number of such petitions requesting it to use its 
influence with local boards of education in securing evening- 
school facilities. It was also advised of several instances where 
similar petitions have been made directly to local school authori¬ 
ties as a means of securing action by them. This suggests a 
very definite scheme of securing evening schools in States where 
these facilities are authorized by law, but are not required to be 
maintained. An interest in acquiring the common language of 
the country develops among the foreign-born whites, the tendency 
seems more and more to be in the direction of making formal 
petitions for instruction through evening schools. This is quite 
likely to be adopted by legislatures as a standard condition pre¬ 
cedent to requiring evening schools, for the purpose of ascertain¬ 
ing the desire on the part of immigrant residents for training in 
English and civics. 

A most significant law was passed by the California Legisla¬ 
ture last year, setting a high standard for other States. This 
legislation provides for the appointment of “domestic educators” 
by local boards of education, upon the basis of one appointee to 
each 500 units of attendance in the day schools. These educators 
are to go from house to house, especially in the foreign sections, 
for the purpose of training the mothers and children in the rules 
of health, sanitation, and hygiene, the principles of buying food 
and clothing, the English language and civics, and other appro- 


210 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


priate subjects. The Commission of Immigration and Housing 
of California, the Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Daugh¬ 
ters of the American Revolution have united in developing 
facilities authorized by this new law. 

STATE AID 

Eleven States grant State aid benefiting evening schools: 
California, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wis¬ 
consin. The amount of State aid, together with the conditions 
under which it is granted, however, is not standardized in these 
States. Under certain limitations, Pennsylvania, to promote vo¬ 
cational instruction, grants to a school district two-thirds of the 
sum which has been expended during the previous school year 
for such instruction. Evening schools for foreigners are thus 
indirectly benefited if vocational instruction is given therein. In 
Maine two-thirds of the amount expended for the salaries of 
teachers is allowed for evening schools in which certain voca¬ 
tional subjects are taught. One-half the cost of maintenance or 
of actual expenditure for evening-school instruction is the stand¬ 
ard most frequently adopted. This practice obtains in New 
Jersey under a special law to promote immigrant classes, and in 
Rhode Island and Wisconsin under certain restrictions as to the 
total amount receivable by a community. Divers other methods 
of apportionment obtain in the remaining States, as in California, 
where it is based upon average daily attendance in evening 
schools; in Connecticut, where a fixed rate of $2.25 per pupil in 
average attendance is paid; in Minnesota, where also obtains a 
per capita basis for evening-school pupils between the ages of 
5 and 21 years; in New Jersey, where a fixed amount per teacher 
is paid, together with a per capita allowance based upon attend¬ 
ance; in New York, where the basis is the number of teachers 
and the days taught by each; and in Washington, where aid is 
given according to the actual number of units of attendance of 
all pupils. In the two States where aid is granted upon the 
basis of attendance an evening attended is credited as half a day 
provided the session is two hours in length. 

It would seem, therefore, that some very high standards have 
been set in the apportionment of State aid, yet none of them has 
received such general adoption as to warrant the statement that 
it is an approved standard. While the principle of State aid for 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


211 


evening-school maintenance is firmly established, the conditions 
under which it is granted still need standardization. 

STANDARDS IN ADMINISTRATION 

Supervision of evening schools ought to be as definite and as 
extensive as supervision of day schools. It is not upon a satis¬ 
factory basis in most communities. The general practice seems 
to be to leave supervision to the superintendent. Only about one- 
third of the 150 cities reporting during the last year employ a 
director of evening-school work. Many , large communities re¬ 
port no such school official. Only one city, Rochester, N.Y., re¬ 
ports a director of immigrant education, whose duties are ex¬ 
clusively limited to this particular phase of education. It is 
needless to remark that this city has made rapid strides in its 
Americanization work, due largely to this specialized supervision. 
A very few other cities report the detailing of a principal to 
supervise the immigrant work in addition to his other duties, but 
in these cities Americanization work has not progressed so ex¬ 
tensively or along such definite lines. Detroit has announced for 
the coming year the appointment of a supervisor of immigrant 
education for the purpose of training teachers in methods, select¬ 
ing appropriate courses and texts, coordinating the work of the 
various schools and classes, and working out appropriate enter¬ 
tainment on “social” evenings. 

In the appointment of evening-school teachers it seems to be 
the general practice to select teachers most capable from the day- 
school staff. Superintendents who follow this method from 
choice do so feeling that a day-school teacher is most competent 
and has training in educational methods. Those who follow the 
practice from necessity, not being able to secure suitable teachers 
from other sources, do not approve of the practice, feeling that 
the double work, physically and mentally, placed upon teachers 
reduces the efficiency of both day and evening school instruction. 
Until adequate means of training teachers for the instruction of 
immigrants in English and civics are devised, coupled with in¬ 
creased salaries, it is quite likely that this custom will obtain 
generally. 

Methods of appointing teachers are quite diverse. While the 
ideal method would be recommendation by the supervisor of im¬ 
migrant education, after proper professional determination of 
fitness, nomination by the superintendent, and appointment by 


212 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


the board of education, yet local whim seems to have determined 
the particular method. Some communities report appointment by 
superintendents, others by boards of education, others by com¬ 
mittees of the board of education, others by principals, others by 
directors of evening schools, others by supervisors of extension 
work, or by the board of industrial education. 

The qualifications considered in the determination of fitness 
have gravitated toward the following tests, the order set forth 
indicating the commonness of the method: first, general teaching 
ability, training, and experience; second, known ability to teach 
immigrants; third, experience in teaching immigrants. Training 
in the teaching of immigrants has been given slight consideration, 
due to the fact that few cities have given definite training in 
this particular line of work. Knowledge and appreciation of the 
immigrant and sympathy with him and with his national and 
racial characteristics have not come to be regarded as important. 
Ability to speak the foreign language is a requirement in some 
places, and personality receives consideration in a number of 
cities, but no standard test or definition of personality prevails. 

In training teachers of foreigners, some progress has been 
made during the past year. In Rochester, N.Y., a high standard 
has been established, the teachers being brought together in 
meetings frequently, and training given them in their own class¬ 
rooms by the supervisor of immigrant education. Small groups 
of teachers are taken about from school to school by the super¬ 
visor for the purpose of watching the work of the most com¬ 
petent instructors. Similar methods have been utilized in other 
cities, but the training is not so highly specialized. Several 
teachers’ institutes have been held during the past year in order 
to develop an interest in this type of education and to point out 
some of the most effective methods utilized. Boston has con¬ 
ducted a teachers’ training course over a considerable period of 
time. At the close of the school year a course was given in the 
city of Detroit, two specialists from outside of the city giving 
two lectures each day to about 300 persons. A similar course 
was given in Buffalo at the close of the evening-school term, 
while several courses have been given in teachers’ colleges and 
even in universities where teachers were in attendance. The 
most notable of such courses were the ones given in the State 
Teachers’ College at Albany, N. Y., and in the summer school 
of Columbia University. This particular method of training 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


213 


probably marks the beginning of great advance in the equipment 
and qualification of teachers for the type of instruction under 
consideration. Several other cities have also announced such 
courses for the coming school year. Special conferences and 
meetings of teachers have been held in Harris Teachers’ College 
at St. Louis, Mo., Wilmerding, Pa., Rockford and East Chicago, 
Ill., Franklin, Mass., Hibbing, Minn., Garwood, N.J., Hudson 
Falls and Yonkers N.Y., Milwaukee and Superior, Wis. About 
35 cities report lectures on immigrant-education problems. 

Lack of standards in training, of course, is due in part to 
lack of standards in methods of teaching English and civics. As 
progress is made in the latter direction, so equally will advance 
be made in competent training of teachers. 

Salaries of both teachers and principals in the evening schools 
are generally paid upon the evening basis. Of 354 communities 
reporting upon the basis of payment, 271 pay at a fixed rate per 
evening; 41 at a fixed rate per hour or period; 31 on the monthly 
basis; 6 upon the yearly basis; and 5 upon the weekly basis. 
While payment upon the evening basis is the standard usually 
adopted, yet distinct advance has been made during the last year 
or two toward payment upon the monthly basis. The whole 
question of payment is involved in the schedule of hours and 
sessions. As long as teachers are taken from the day-school 
staff and evening schools are conducted on only three or four 
evenings per week, payment must by necessity in most cities be 
made upon the evening basis. Where evening schools are con¬ 
ducted four or five evenings per week, and where adult classes 
are also held during the day the tendency is toward payment 
upon a monthly basis. The extension of evening-school facilities 
and the combination of adult day classes with evening-school 
instruction will enable an increasingly large number of communi¬ 
ties to make payment upon that basis. The professional side of 
instructing adult immigrants will never be developed until a 
teacher is placed in a position to specialize in this form of work 
to the exclusion of day-school instruction of children and other 
vocations. Principals are usually paid upon the same basis as 
teachers, although in 14 instances a different arrangement pre¬ 
vails. 

Salaries of teachers and principals show the greatest diversity. 
The most frequent salary in cities of over 100,000 population is $2 
per evening. This obtains in 10 out of 36 cities reporting, al- 


214 


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though the range of salaries in these cities is $i to $3, while the 
average is $2.20 per evening. The most frequent salary in cities 
ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 population is also $2 per evening, 
as well as in cities from 10,000 to 25,000. Twenty-five out of 
the 81 cities in the second-mentioned group and 26 cities out of 
82 in the third group pay this amount. The range of salaries, 
however, in both of these last-mentioned groups is greater even 
than in the first mentioned, being from $1 to $3.50. The average 
in both, however, is below the first-mentioned group. The gen¬ 
eral tendency seems to be to raise the rate per evening as interest 
and appreciation of the Americanization movement develops in 
each community. 


TERMS, SESSIONS, AND HOURS 

The greatest diversity exists in the number of evenings taught 
during the term. In Traverse City, Mich., the term runs through 
20 sessions, one evening per week, while in Los Angeles and Oak¬ 
land, Cal., the term extends throughout 187 sessions of five even¬ 
ings per week. It must be remarked, however, that the length 
of the terms in the two California cities mentioned is due to 
the requirement of State law, it having been made a standard 
by legislative enactment that evening school facilities shall be 
coextensive with those provided in the day schools. In the 43 
cities of over 100,000 inhabitants reporting, in which the range 
of sessions is from 46 to 187, the average number of sessions is 
83. This, however, does not mean that the average is by any 
means a standard. Only 9 of these cities report over 90 ses¬ 
sions; 24 report from 70 to 90 sessions, and 10 less than 70. 
Again, of the 102 cities of 25,000 to 100,000 population reporting, 
with a range of sessions from 40 to 185, the average number of 
sessions is 79. In 22 the term runs over 90 sessions; in 59 
from 60 to 90 sessions; and in 21, less than 60. Out of the 113 
cities of 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants reporting, with a range of 
sessions from 20 to 177, the average number of sessions is 59. 
Thirteen cities report over 80 sessions in a term; 78 report from 
40 to 80; and 22 report less than 40. 

State aid is the most powerful factor in standardizing the 
number of sessions in a term. In New Jersey, under the pro¬ 
vision of the general aid law, a community may not receive State 
aid unless it maintains night schools on at least 64 evenings. 
In Connecticut, the minimum is fixed at 75. In Minnesota, State 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


215 


aid is not available unless the pupils attend on 40 nights or more. 

The number of sessions per week ranges from one to six. 
The standard seems to be three nights per week on alternate 
evenings. Of 376 cities reporting, 175 had three evenings per 
week, and 102 had four evenings per week. Monday is selected 
hy 335 cities, and Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings 
constitute the most frequent combination in 86 cities, although 
classes are conducted on the first four evenings of the week in 
80 cities. The tendency during the past year or two has been 
toward the first standard mentioned—three alternate evenings 
per week—Monday Wednesday, and Friday. At the close of the 
last evening-school year, the school officials of Detroit announced 
that the four-evening combination would be abolished and a 
three-evening combination would be substituted during the com¬ 
ing school year. 

The length of a session is unusually well standardized; 323 
out of 428 cities reporting us a two-hour session. Nevertheless, 
74 cities have sessions of one hour and a half. Although 122 
cities use the 7 to 9 o’clock period, the most common hours of 
conducting classes are from 7:30 to 9:30. One hundred and 
forty-six communities have adopted this as a standard period. 

REGULARIZING ATTENDANCE 

Although cities have used several methods of regularizing 
attendance of immigrant pupils, the most common practice is to 
require a deposit returnable upon regularity of attendance. At 
least 150 communities require deposits conditioned upon two- 
thirds to four-fifths of the evenings taught. The amount of the 
deposits varies widely. The most common amount required is 
$1. Out of 429 cities 77 report an actual fee charged. This oper¬ 
ates to discourage attendance rather than to regularize it. 

PUBLICITY AND COOPERATION 

In bringing evening-school facilities to the attention of pros¬ 
pective pupils, the most common methods used by school author¬ 
ities are announcements in the foreign-language newspapers, 
posters, placards, and handbills. In seven cities slides are shown 
in moving-picture theaters. In a few cities circular letters are 
sent to employers labor organizations, foreigners’ societies, and 
civic clubs. 

The greatest contribution to publicity methods has been made 


216 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


by the city of Detroit, where the board of education and the 
board of commerce united in a city-wide publicity campaign to 
induce foreigners to attend night school. Several hundred in¬ 
dustrial establishments cooperated in having their non-English 
speaking employees enroll. Posters and handbills were dis¬ 
seminated broadcast and notices were placed in pay envelopes. 
Priests, foreigners’ societies, foreign-language newspapers, pa¬ 
triotic societies, civic clubs, and fraternal organizations coop¬ 
erated in bringing the value of night schools to the attention 
of foreign-born residents. As a result enrollment was increased 
in excess of 150 per cent beyond the year preceding. 

For the sake of stimulating an appreciation of the value of 
publicity as a means of getting foreigners into the night schools, 
the Bureau of Education caused the distribution of over 150,000 
“America First” posters. These set forth in English and seven 
foreign languages the advantages of attending night school and 
learning the English language. The response was definite and 
conclusive. Not only was a perceptible increase in attendance 
noted, but a positive demand for night schools came from many 
sections where such facilities had never been maintained. A 
considerable number of communities established night schools as 
a result, and a keen interest in the Americanization movement 
was developed among American citizens. 

Another method of publicity was devised by the United States 
Bureau of Naturalization in the Department of Labor. The 
names of declarants and petitioners for naturalization were 
entered upon cards and sent to the respective school authorities 
in those communities where these aliens resided. Through the 
contact developed in this way between naturalization courts and 
school officials a considerable number of classes in citizenship 
for those preparing for naturalization have been established. 

In December, 1914, the Bureau of Education suggested to the 
United States Bureau of Immigration in the Department of 
Labor that the names of alien children of school age be sent to 
the proper school authorities in those communities to which such 
children were destined upon arriving at the ports of entry. The 
names of a limited number prior to that time had been sent to 
certain cities upon request. The plan was extended to all com¬ 
munities at the beginning of the school term of 1915-16. 

From Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for the 
year ended June 30, 1916. Chapter XX, Vol. 1. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


217 


THE WORKERS’ CLASS 

Winthrop Talbot 

ORIGINATOR OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL DAY-CLASS IN INDUSTRIAL 
ESTABLISHMENTS 

The principle of the workers’ class is that the public-school 
system shall furnish a teacher and school equipment; the in¬ 
dustrial establishment shall provide a room in the place of em¬ 
ployment and time during the day for instruction without loss 
of wage; and the workers themselves shall contribute their own 
effort during daylight hours under definite personal responsibility. 

In the workers’ class it is possible for any person of ordi¬ 
nary intelligence who has never learned to read or write in 
any language, and who can speak no English, to acquire a good 
working knowledge of 600 English words, ease in reading com¬ 
mon prose, legible penmanship, and knowledge of simple arith¬ 
metic. The time needed is 60 hours, or 1 hour a day for 12 
weeks, 5 days a week. 

Experimental Class for Adult Workers 

The workers’ class begun in New York City in the spring 
of 1913 was an initial experiment in the effort to meet the 
school needs of adult industrial workers to the end that boards 
of education might assign thoroughly capable and expert public- 
school teachers to give instruction in industrial establishments 
to adults or those beyond school age. 

It was also an effort to provide elementary schooling, not 
trade training, because trade training is not needed in industries 
where all work is done through certain operative processes 
easily learned within a few days in the factory itself and re¬ 
quiring only that expertness which must be acquired by working 
daily until “practice makes perfect.’’ 

It is of prime importance that in instituting workers’ classes 
for adults in industrial establishments stress should be laid on 
discovering and employing as teachers only those who are indus¬ 
trially minded and whose personality and teaching equipment 
are such as to grip the interest of undeveloped adult pupils 
whose minds are not plastic, whose attention is easily lost, and 
who are quickly wearied mentally. Moreover, the teacher must 
be a person of judgment, adaptability and poise—and nonpartisan, 


218 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


both socially and racially. The least bias of thought or feeling 
will find expression in words or acts and will militate seri¬ 
ously against success in an atmosphere of growing democracy 
such as is characteristic of establishments sufficiently advanced 
to install a workers’ class and co-operate with the public-school 
system. 

It became clear from close study given to this class how hard 
it is to predetermine correctly proper modes of study for and 
modes of conducting workers’ classes; wise methods can be 
selected only by experiment, analysis, and adaptation. Since 
similar cooperative classes are now being formed in other indus¬ 
tries, as well as in mercantile establishments and construction 
camps, it is well to recognize possible pitfalls and errors. 

I. At first it seemed reasonable to suppose that girls who 
had never been taught to read and write could be assigned to 
one group; that those who had been to school a few years in 
foreign countries could form another group; that those who 
had been to school in this country and knew a little English 
could form a third. It was soon found that the amount of prior 
schooling could not be taken as a basis for grouping. All group¬ 
ing had to be determined by the degree of individual interest, 
application, ability to concentrate, and mental flexibility. 

II. An observation allied to this is that methods of instruc¬ 
tion and teachers adequate for pupils from 14 to 16 who have 
just left school may be failures in dealing with workers over 
16, especially those who have been out of school for several 
years and who have lost entirely the habit of knack of study. 

III. For the first few weeks, in general, the most striking 
characteristic in the class was a discouraging mental rigidity 
and listlessness. Girls became fatigued after 15 or 20 minutes 
of application to their books like young children. It was ap¬ 
parently more wearisome to them to try to read for 10 minutes 
than to work intensely and interestedly at dressmaking for an 
hour. They seemed stupid and inattentive after a few minutes 
of effort with pencil or book, although evidently ambitious and 
desirous to learn. 

IV. In learning the educational needs of girls in the under¬ 
muslin industry, light is not necessarily thrown upon all the 
mental requirements of workers in other industries. To avoid 
costly errors, the institution of similar experimental classes 
under like intense and expert analysis would be the cheapest 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


219 


and surest mode of handling this educational problem in any 
industry. What girls in the undermuslin line need most might 
be least useful to girls employed on core making in foundries 
or selling goods over the counter. For instance, in some optical 
works only high-school girls are ever employed. Illiterates are 
seldom employed in department stores. Some factories will not 
employ foreigners; some employ only foreigners. Certain estab¬ 
lishments wish only girls fresh from grammar schools and living 
at home; others prefer older and steadier women, dependent on 
their own resources. The needs of men are almost radically 
different from those of women. Yet workers’ classes are adapted 
to everyone engaged in industry—skilled or unskilled, literate or 
illiterate, alert or dull. 

V. Another impressive deduction was the need of care of 
health, and particularly knowledge of physical handicaps. One- 
third of the girls in this group, chosen at random, had eye de¬ 
fects which would make it impossible for them ever to earn 
more than a bare living wage while working on white goods. 
Such girls might easily make much more money as waitresses, 
or doing almost any work which does not require accurate vision. 
Such special handicaps are not only costly to the industry, but 
prevent the worker from earning a proper livelihood and are 
the frequent cause of the low and stationary wage. It would 
be to the financial advantage of every worker and every industry 
to know by health examinations what physical disabilities inter¬ 
fere with productive wage advancement in any given job. Labor 
organizations having the larger wage at heart should exert 
every effort to compel the institution of such examinations, as 
a matter of fair play and justice to the workers. Managers 
should institute such examinations, as a means of avoiding dis¬ 
couragement, waste, and discontent. 

Workers’ Class for Adult Illiterates. 

As the direct outcome and intentional sequence of the ex¬ 
perimental class, by authorization of the school authorities, in 
September, 1913, Miss Lizzie E. Rector, principal of Public 
School No. 4, deputed Miss Florence D. Myers, who had been 
in charge of the experimental class, to teach 40 girls in the 
factory of D. E. Sicher & Co., New York City. 

These girls were mainly those who had never learned to read 
or write in any language, and comprised all the illiterates in the 


220 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


factory force of 400, are about 10 per cent. The girls were 
assigned to two groups, one being taught from October to 
February, the other from February to June. The groups were 
divided into sections of six or seven each, and each section was 
taught daily for a period of 45 minutes, except on Saturday. 
In this way every illiterate girl in the factory at the time 
received nearly individual instruction in English, reading, 
writing, arithmetic, American history, geography, personal hy¬ 
giene, and practical information about food, fire protection, 
and the evolution of the undergarment. Practice was given 
in the writing of letters of a friendly and business nature; keep¬ 
ing expense accounts and budgets, and in making out workslips 
and reports; the girls learned the practical application in daily 
life of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. They were 
taught how to deposit money in the savings bank and how to 
draw it out. 

Miss Myers took pains herself to sit at the various ma¬ 
chines and get the forewomen to instruct and correct her, mak¬ 
ing note of all their phrases and afterwards using them in the 
early lessons in English. In teaching English, practice was given 
in the use of the telephone book, the city directory, and how to 
write telegrams. The girls learned about the mail service, how 
to send letters abroad, the common routes of travel in New York 
City, and local ordinances. They were given practical and 
simple rules for safety and health. 

It was obvious, as the weeks passed by, that the lessons in 
personal hygiene, physical culture, right breathing, and eating 
were taking effect. The eyes of the girls were getting brighter, 
the skins clearer, the minds more alert and receptive, and better 
taste and judgment were shown in dress. From being apathetic, 
they became interested, eager, and willing to work hard. 

In no sense would this be termed welfare or philanthropic 
work, inasmuch as in the records of the firm the girl students 
gained from 20 to 70 per cent in working efficiency, and the 
girls themselves not only attained new hopefulness, ambition, 
and courage, but increased their earnings from an average of 
19.5 cents per hour to 22.2 cents per hour, while the earnings of 
those who could not avail themselves of the class instruction 
remained practically unchanged. 

Adult Illiteracy, pp. 38-46. Bulletin, 1916, No. 35. United Statei 
Bureau of Education. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


221 


A WORKERS’ CLASS OF ILLITERATE GIRLS 

Lizzie C. Rector 

PRINCIPAL, PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 4, NEW YORK CITY 

The girls who attended the school the first year were selected 
on a basis of illiteracy. Some had never been in a school at 
any time in their lives. Others had, for brief periods, attended 
school in remote districts in Russia, Poland, and Italy. Some, 
since their arrival in New York, had made an effort to gain 
what had been denied them at home, by going to night schools 
after working in the factory all day. This proved to be such 
a tax on their strength that most of them finally gave up the 
attempt. 

During the past year 40 girls have received instruction. 
These were divided into two classes of 16 each and one of 8. 
These classes were then subdivided into groups of three or 
four girls each, each group receiving instruction for 45 minutes 
daily. They were taught to read, to write, and to keep a per¬ 
sonal expense account as a part of the course in arithmetic. 
As the girls were engaged in the factory on piecework, the 
firm paid them while attending school the amount they would 
earn if actually at work, so that at the end of the week they 
received full pay. 

The results of the first year’s work in the classes have been 
highly satisfactory. A careful examination of the teachers’ and 
the factory’s reports shows that the earning capacity of the 
girls has been increased from 10 to 40 per cent. This result 
is in accordance with the established educational principle that 
increased intelligence creates increased efficiency, and increased 
efficiency produces increased earning capacity. 

Not only have the girls gained in knowledge and earning 
power, but their ambition has been aroused; they have a keen 
sense of the distinction between right and wrong; and they are 
imbued with a better spirit. 

At the close of the course in June, graduation exercises were 
held and public-school certificates of literacy were presented to 
each member of the class. 

From time to time interested visitors, educators, and em¬ 
ployers visited the class. It attracted attention and favorable 
notice in the daily press throughout the whole country, with the 


222 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


result that other employers have been stimulated to establish 
similar classes, especially in department stores for literate girls. 

Course of Study of the Illiterate Workers’ Class. 

I. English Language: 

(i) Reading. (2) Spelling 

(3) Writing. (4) Geography. 

(5) Methods of communication— 

a. Correspondence— b. Telephoning. 

Business letters, c. Telegraphing. 

Social letters. 

Post-office regulations. 

II. Hygiene: 

(1) Personal cleanliness. 

(2) Physical culture (gymnastics). 

(3) Food—choice, food value, cooking, serving. 

(4) Emergencies, treatment of injured. 

III. Civics: 

(1) Systems of government— 

a. Merits of democratic government. 

b. Patriotism. 

c. Citizenship. 

(2) History— 

a. Origin of legal holidays, b. Lives of statesmen. 

IV. Mathematics: 

(1) Four fundamental operations in arithmetic. 

(2) Tables of weights and measures. 

(3) Money; bills and currency. 

(4) Work reports. 

(5) Personal expense accounts. 

(6) Bank accounts. 

V. Practical application of language: 

(1) Evolution of an undergarment— 

a. Growth of cotton plant, c. Weaving. 

b. Manufacture— d. Shipping. 

Spinning operation. 

Bleaching. 

(2) Alphabet as a guide to common things— 

a. Advertisements. c. Directory. 

b. Dictionary. 

Adult Illiteracy, pp. 48-9. Bulletin, 1916. No. 35- United State# 
Bureau of Education. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


223 


THE EDUCATION OF THE IMMIGRANT 

Grace Abbott 

DIRECTOR OF THE IMMIGRANTS’ PROTECTIVE LEAGUE, 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 

In planning any new program for the education of the adult 
immigrant, the main difficulty is a complete lack of definite ideas 
as to what can be accomplished. Anything, however little, which 
the evening schools have managed to do has been counted as so 
much pure gain. There is, however, a growing demand that the 
education of the adult be put on an entirely new basis. To meet 
this demand, it would be necessary to decide at the outset what 
we ought to expect to accomplish in any program adopted. 

People who have been stirred by the nationalism which the 
present war has developed have said that “we ought to get the 
immigrants into our evening schools and teach them American 
ideals.” These enthusiastic patriots seem quite unconscious of 
the fact that, because the immigrant is so inadequately protected 
against fraud and exploitation and because he so frequently 
suffers from racial discrimination, it is perhaps necessary to get 
him into a room and to tell him how different our beliefs with 
regard to social and political equality are from our practices. 
But until we live these beliefs we cannot honestly represent them 
to the immigrants as American. 

There are others who think that it is necessary to teach the 
strangers among us the “fundamental Americanism,” for they 
fear that the traditions of the country will be destroyed by the 
“invading hordes.” We should probably rather seriously dis¬ 
agree among ourselves about what these fundamental American¬ 
isms are; but I suppose most of us would like to class religious 
toleration as one of them. When we remember how long, 
judged by this standard, it took to Americanize our Puritan an¬ 
cestors, it is a surprise to find that people believe that such prin¬ 
ciples can be taught by ten lessons in Americanism. 

Many Americans have in mind as of first importance a change 
in the superficial habits of the immigrants—their dress, house¬ 
keeping, and family celebrations. And yet no one of us really 
sees any danger to American life in the use of black bread in¬ 
stead of white, or in the wearing of a shawl instead of a hat. 

There are others who find that one of the greatest lessons of 


224 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


the war has been to demonstrate the need of “molding” the im¬ 
migrants into true Americans as fast as possible. But this can¬ 
not be accepted as an educational end either for children or for 
adults. The “molding” process is contrary to sound educational 
standards. It means ironing out individual, as well as group, 
differences. It means that the native Americans set themselves 
up as the “true American type” to which the immigrants must 
conform. This would, of course, be reckless in its disregard of 
the talents and capacity of other peoples. It would also be so 
stultifying to the native Americans that it probably would seri¬ 
ously endanger any future development of those who are de¬ 
scendants of the “old stock.” 

Fortunately, the educational needs of the adult immigrants 
are of the definite sort that can be met. Those who see them as 
they arrive and after they have encountered many of the ugliest 
aspects of American life know that they come with some knowl¬ 
edge of industrial conditions in America—that is a reason for 
their coming. But of labor laws designed for their protection, 
of the employment agent and his practices, of possible markets 
for their skill, of what is a fair wage in America, they know 
nothing at all. They know that we have a republican form of 
government—that, too, is a reason why they come. Most of 
them know something of the history of the country and of the 
principles it has championed. But they do not have any con¬ 
crete knowledge of the machinery through which democracy ex¬ 
presses itself or is prevented from expressing itself in the United 
States. They do not understand the history that is being made 
in the United States to-day. 

We are relying on our public evening schools to teach the 
immigrant English and to give him the information he needs to 
enable him to take his part in our community life. Chicago is 
not especially behind other cities in the educational provision 
which it is making for the adult immigrant; but tha^ Chicago is 
not doing what, in the interest of the community as well as of 
the immigrant, should be done, is obvious. 

According to the United States Census in 1900 there were in 
Chicago 69,771 foreign-born white persons ten years of age and 
over unable to speak English; in 1910 the number was 184,884. 
By 1916, it is estimated the number was more than 200,000. In 
1900 there were 46,424 foreign-born white persons over fourteen 
years of age who were unable to read or write in any language; 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


225 


in 1910 the number was 75,580. How much effort is being made 
to offer these people the opportunity of learning the things they 
need to know, very few people in Chicago have stopped to in¬ 
quire. 

In the spring of 1915, with the cooperation of the superin¬ 
tendent of schools and the superintendent of evening classes, an 
investigation of the evening schools in Chicago was made by the 
Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and the Immigrants’ 
Protective League. Only a few of the facts learned in that in¬ 
vestigation can be given here. During that year, of the 17,613 
who were enrolled, only seven per cent attended as many as 70 
out of 80 evenings of the session and 23 per cent attended less 
than 20 evenings. The record of illiteracy was not kept by the 
schools; but the principals of the evening classes so far as they 
had information on the subject thought that practically no il¬ 
literates were in the schools. 

The inference drawn from such figures by those who do not 
know all the facts is that the immigrant is to blame for this 
showing. Two of Chicago’s leading newspapers recently called 
attention editorially to the large number of non-English speaking 
residents in the South Chicago district and the small number 
that had taken out their citizenship papers. The superintendent 
of evening schools reported that his South Chicago classes have 
not been well attended. The papers quite rightly reasoned that 
something was wrong. But even superficial investigation would 
have indicated the real source of the difficulties. The men who 
are employed in the steel mills of South Chicago work twelve 
hours a day for one week on a day shift and the next week on a 
night shift. The classes the city offers these men meet four 
evenings of every week throughout a term of twenty w^eeks, just 
as they do in the other parts of the city. That so many of them 
should have attended evening school under these circumstances 
is a proof of their great eagerness to learn English. 

In order to gain some first-hand information as to the reason 
why those who had evidenced their desire to learn English by en¬ 
rolling in the evening school dropped out in such large numbers, 
the Immigrants’ Protective League visited in the spring of 1916 
all those who had left three of the evening schools and whose 
names and addresses could be secured. These schools were sit¬ 
uated in typical foreign neighborhoods in the northwest, west 
and southwest parts of the city. 


236 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Of the 554 whom we tried to interview, we were unable to 
locate 115, 112 had moved from the neighborhood of the school, 
and 33 had left the city to do farm or railroad construction 
work. The reasons given by the others were as follows: 


Industrial causes . 169 

Overtime work .69 

Changed from day to night work... .37 
Changed jobs, unable to get to school 

by 7 p. m.36 

Fatigue after the day’s work .27 

Dissatisfaction with school . 51 

No classification of students.6 

Discouraged over progress .17 

Teacher unable to speak their 

language .22 

Indifference of teacher . 4 

Change of teacher. 2 

Illness or some family difficulty . 49 

All other reasons. 71 

340 

Counted twice .46 

Total .294 

Ways by which a large number of these people might be kept 


in attendance at evening school immediately suggest themselves. 
Those who leave on account of overtime work said that they 
were planning to return in the fall when the term began. But 
they will hardly have enrolled before the holiday rush will de¬ 
mand exhausting overtime work. To meet this difficulty, classes 
should be offered throughout the year. During periods of nor¬ 
mal immigration the largest numbers arrive during the spring 
and summer; so a summer term is much needed on this account. 
The plan of beginning the evening classes in October and closing 
them in March was never adopted with a view to securing a 
large attendance of those for whose benefit the classes are of¬ 
fered, but because tradition has kept the school houses locked 
for several months a year. The evening schools receive students 
at any time during the session; but new classes are not organized 
nor is the work widely advertised except in the fall. The fre- 
















RACE-ASSIMILATION 


227 


quent formation of new classes and a follow-up system would 
.. secure the re-attendance of most of those who leave on account 
of illness or with the beginning of the busy season in their trade. 

Chicago conducts one very interesting and successful day 
school for adults near the center of the business district. Stu¬ 
dents are allowed to attend the whole day or such part of the 
day as they are free. A large number of waiters, dishwashers, 
and other hotel and restaurant employees in the Loop District 
and others who come from various parts of the city attend this 
school. But it is too far away from many of the largest im¬ 
migrant districts to enable those who work at night to attend. 

Classes meeting in the late afternoon are very much needed 
in other parts of the city, if those who do night work are to be 
given any opportunity to learn English. 

Men and women whose work ends at six o’clock in the down¬ 
town district find it impossible to reach home and to get ready 
for school by seven o’clock. These men and women all said that 
they would be glad to attend a class beginning at eight o’clock. 
It should, of course, be possible to have classes beginning at both 
seven and eight o’clock. But for the Polish girls who worked 
ten hours in a laundry, for the Ruthenian girl who did dish¬ 
washing ten hours in a restaurant, for the seventeen-year-old 
Polish boy who worked in a foundry, for the seventeen-year-old 
Russian Jewish girl who was eager to learn but who said it was 
a choice of work or school and she must choose work—for these 
and others who found themselves too tired to attend after the 
day’s work—some radical change in our educational program is 
needed. 

The Massachusetts Commission recommended the establish¬ 
ment of a compulsory part-time system for all those under seven¬ 
teen years of age in the hope that they would not only be taught 
English but be given such additional general and vocational 
training as would meet their needs. It is to be hoped that em¬ 
ployers eventually will be compelled to allow all their employees 
who are unable to speak English a short period for instruction 
during their working hours. Some employers would be willing 
to do this now; and the schools should hold themselves ready to 
conduct these classes, provided reasonably satisfactory teaching 
conditions are guaranteed. 

The practice of employing as night school teachers only those 
who are also employed in the day school is general. In cities 


228 


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where this is not done the teaching force is recruited from 
students and young lawyers and doctors who find their work a 
convenient way of supplementing their incomes. In neither case 
are really professional standards possible. 

No great improvement in the teaching can be hoped for until 
specially trained teachers are employed to do the evening school 
work. In some of the large classes which are composed of old 
and young, illiterate and educated, and taught by a weary teacher, 
the class work is necessarily so poor that only the most ambitious 
and the hopelessly stupid remain. 

Books intended for adults are now generally used; but the 
Cleveland Survey reports that men employed in one of Cleve¬ 
land’s steel mills were found copying “I am a yellow bird. I can 
sing. I can fly. I can sing to you,” and in another they were 
reading “Little drops of water, little grains of sand.” Books in 
which the words and pictures are based on the work and life of 
the immigrant men and women are now available. 

The Immigrant and the Community, pp. 234-46. New York. Century. 

1917. 


SCHOOLS IN CAMPS 

Sarah Wool Moore 

TEACHER, AND ORGANIZER OF SCHOOLS, SOCIETY FOR ITALIAN 
IMMIGRANTS 

The schoolhouse for a moving camp may perhaps be a trans¬ 
formed freight car or a portable building, but “most any old 
country schoolhouse” which may chance to be conveniently near 
the camp will not be suitable. 

Schoolrooms, as at present arranged, are as little adapted to 
the convenience and comfort of the adult as are school text 
books. Here again we are trying to make the child’s wardrobe 
fit the man. Whether in city or camp, school quarters for the 
adult should be of the reading room type and conversation should 
be a stated feature of the course. The ordinary recitation room 
open for evening classes, with its individual desks screwed to 
the floor, admits of no grading, no grouping, no pantomime re¬ 
hearsal of verbs, no impromptu “socials,” no flexibility or free¬ 
dom of program. 

Our commodious school shanty with its open rafters is, at the 
beginning, forty or fifty feet long by eighteen wide, and soon a 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


229 


wing is added. Under the high horizontal window sashes a con¬ 
tinuous blackboard surrounds the walls. The furniture consist 
of benches or chairs and removable table tops eleven feet long 
and two and a half feet wide, supported on horses. A platform 
at one end of the room and running shelves for books over the 
blackboards are a necessity. Here one teacher may take care of 
thirty or forty men in two well-defined grades, if each class, 
grouped about its long table, has its work planned so that it can 
go forward while the teacher is busy at the other table. Begin¬ 
ners, without regard to nationality, occupy the wing and have a 
special teacher. 

If a family camp, as soon as possible, facing south or east 
there should be a sunny kindergarten 1 extension. These three 
rooms thrown together make a fine assembly or social hall. 

In one corner stands a neat, shelved box containing fifty or 
one hundred volumes loaned by the State Library at Albany. On 
its top are piled a dozen or two games to be enjoyed Saturday 
evenings. 

The working man likes his school quarters in the heart of his 
living quarters and of the same homely pattern; he likes to have 
his regular teacher, his own seat and his own book and he desires 
ardently what every language student desires, to have exact equiv¬ 
alents for the names of such things as cannot be represented 
graphically, as, time, distance, value, exchange, wages, debt, sav¬ 
ings. He is equally eager to get hold of the English word for 
objects which may be graphically represented, not doll and kite, 
however, but subway, tunnel, hoist, steam drill—the implements 
of a man. 

Text books must be the staff of teacher as well as pupil, for 
few available teachers are at present masters of any of the immi¬ 
grant languages. They can communicate with instructions only 
in English and in pantomime, from which perhaps one-half of the 
pupils may gather profit. What of the other half? Then, too, 
primary text books insult the intelligence of men who are not 
infants because they are learning to talk. Already mature and at 
the prime of brawn and brain and nervous force they have trans¬ 
ferred themselves from one to another family of nations and are 
eager for the English which will express the life they are living. 

How is it now? In most night schools for adult foreigners no 
better way is found than to start up in the evening the machinery 

1 Camp children of school age should also be provided for unless the 
nearest public school is within walking distance. 


230 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


of the morning suitable only for children. The inevitable result 
is discouragement and disgust. 

A system must be adopted or devised which with unswerving 
directness will put the immigrant in possession of the six or eight 
hundred words which he needs to understand and desires to use. 
A book entirely English should be prepared, giving at the head 
of each page numbered cuts of related objects, as, for instance, 
those composing a kit of carpenters’ tools or miners’ implements, 
and below on the same page, the correspondingly numbered Eng¬ 
lish name for each. “John, what is No. 16?” Not only John, 
but every man in the class searches for cut sixteen and recog¬ 
nizes it as a familiar acquaintance before he finds sixteen in the 
text below and hears, clearly pronounced by the teacher, its Eng¬ 
lish name. The class repeats the name in concert and individu¬ 
ally. This drill must give definite information and give it 
simultaneously to Finn, Russian, Bohemian, Pole or Italian. 

But words capable of graphic representation will not consti¬ 
tute more than an eighth of the numbed which must be mastered 
and a committee on revision of text books, which would exercise 
an important function in the proposed bureau of industry and 
immigration, would do well to select a suitable series out of 
existing books, eliminate infantile subjects, expressions and illus¬ 
trations, and introduce in the most simple and gradually progres¬ 
sive phraseology a man’s conversation. From primer to third 
reader the vocabulary should grow by accretion and use—a con¬ 
stant repetition of the ground passed over, a gradual addition of 
substantives and words of action, quality and relation. As these 
new words are introduced their equivalents in, let us say, Finnish, 
should be interlined, and at the back of the book be it primer or 
more advanced reader an alphabetical vocabulary Finnish-English 
and English-Finnish should be subjoined. 

With such simple but sufficient tools to work with, the 
troubled perplexity would pass out of many Finnish eyes, many 
Finnish brows would clear and simultaneous enlightenment would 
come to Pole, Italian, Greek—each man being furnished with a 
reader identical as to English text and differing from the others 
only in its interlined interpretations. Excellent text books 2 

2 Chancellor’s Language and Reading for Evening Schools. Harring¬ 
ton’s I and II Book for Non-English Speaking People. O’Brien’s English 
for Foreigners. Robert’s Lesson Leaves—English for New Americans. 
Richman and Wallack’s Good Citizenship. Howard’s American History, 
Government and Institutions. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


231 


already exist, but they presuppose a knowledge of our speech 
which only a few possess. 

The evolution of the right teacher is a problem. The kind 
needed will be attracted to the work—experienced, devoted, capa¬ 
ble, reliable and human. Theoretically a man should be the 
teacher in a labor camp but the Society for Italian Immigrants 
has had better success in sending women out by pairs or trios, 
and however forbidding the surroundings, no woman has suf¬ 
fered any discourtesy. 

A teacher must expect inconvenience and difficulty. His prep¬ 
aration should include the principles of settlement work and 
knowledge of one or more foreign languages; for the efficiency 
of a camp school is not at its highest unless the language of the 
campers has been mastered by at least one of the teachers. 

The problem of full and regular attendance depends largely 
upon the administrative ability of the principal. If kept busy 
and gaining a little headway each man says, ‘‘Tomorrow I will be 
here sure.” But, it is difficult! Kinsmen and paesani from the 
same village troop in by squads. The beginners’ class is sud¬ 
denly swelled by eleven or twelve additions. Alas for the 
teacher! The pupils are glad to have mistakes corrected but the 
teacher must not chide or make invidious comparisons or praise 
too much, for jealousy is easily aroused. Though so gregarious 
there is a strange “apartness” between paesani of different Italian 
towns—they do not know or want to know each other’s names or 
numbers or abodes, but that gradually wears off. It is wise to 
make changes in the order of school exercises without previous 
announcement. The pupils dislike innovations and the very thing 
you think will please them most, may work the other way. Each 
wants his own seat, his own book, his own accustomed turn, 
though all like a certain variety in the program and not too much 
time devoted to one thing. Plenty of talk, plenty of repetition, 
rehearsal of work-orders, concert reading, work on blackboard, 
phonic drill, free translation and practice in the use of a diction¬ 
ary, and simple dialogues improvised by the teacher which are 
rehearsed with great gusto and sympathetically applauded by the 
school. 

Then there is the problem of the pupil, often tired and sleepy, 
often set back with a new class of starters, often experiencing a 
most undesired change of teachers, puzzled and at sea but reso¬ 
lute to make the acquaintance of his new surroundings, he will 


232 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


smile up at you and say, “Bye and bye,” when that is almost the 
total of his English. Then, the pitiful “out of a job” cases who 
are “fired” because they consider their work too dangerous and 
because wages are not scaled up in proportion to risk. “I am 
willing to work,” said one. “I must work, I can’t afford not to 
work but I am not willing to be killed.” The pathetic illiterates, 
j^oung men as well as old, who delightedly practice writing their 
own names and read at sight words of two letters and often make 
astonishing progress. The intelligent looking newcomers “dumb 
as horses,” Greeks, Slavs, Ruthenians, Croatians, Bulgarians, 
Russians, Finns—one can only set before them the array of dic¬ 
tionaries available and make them pick out the words “school,” 
“country,” “age,” “arrive,” etc.—words for which there is no 
object illustration in sight. Often one of the group will be able 
to act as interpreter of this or that language. 

The Teaching of Foreigners, 386-391. Survey. 24. June 4, 1910. 


PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION FOR UNITED 
STATES CITIZENSHIP 


George Becht 

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, HARRISBURG, PA. 


The revival of pageantry in various communities, working 
out through ceremonial and dramatic form the episodes that 
marked the rise and progress of a city or community, is one of 
the most significant methods of impressing upon the young the 
spirit of sacrifice and social service. American children show 
their love and appreciation for heroic deeds in their selections of 
declamations which set forth the exploits of such heroes as 
Horatius, Gustavus Adolphus and William of Orange. These 
make their appeal to children not because the expression of their 
lives symbolizes a race or a group but because they represent 
fundamental expressions of human life. The school and the 
community should help preserve the best traditions of the alien 
and help him to work them out into the newer relationships. To 
neglect their heroes is to subtract one of the most fruitful fac¬ 
tors in teaching patriotism. Garibaldi, Pasteur, Disraeli, Volta, 
Mendelssohn, Marconi have a meaning to the world that is not 
consequent upon the fact that they were born across the sea. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


233 


The courage, strength, ardor and spirit of the great men of any 
nation are admired by other nations. 

Hithertc the school has regarded the teaching of citizenship 
as a special topic or the work of a separate department, but we 
are learning that every recitation constitutes a lesson in citizen¬ 
ship and that there is an arithmetic of character, a geography of 
character as well as the ethics of character. There is no branch 
of study that will not lend itself to training for civic righteous¬ 
ness and civic efficiency. The problem of training youth in cit¬ 
izenship does not involve new institutions, new text and new 
subject-matter, but rather a new attitude of the teachers and a 
new atmosphere in the classroom. Children must be helped to 
think through the problems of the community and the relation¬ 
ships of the individual to the social group to which he belongs as 
well as to the civic order. The alien, as well as the native Amer¬ 
ican, needs to*be instructed in the limitations of liberty. He 
must learn that his liberty must be liberty under the law. If 
American children understood this as thoroughly as they ought 
to understand it, we should not have to blush in the presence of 
the foreign child when children of native Americans, with half- 
baked ideas about liberty and independence, interpret that liberty 
and independence in terms of unbridled license. What indeed 
must be the effect upon children of the alien when in high schools 
or in the grades they note the pupils strike because some one has 
been punished or because a teacher has been promoted or de¬ 
moted, or a holiday refused? Above all else, the school must 
teach a reverence for the law and respect for the rights of 
others. No word is so misunderstood as “liberty.” One man’s 
liberty ends where the right of another begins. The story has it 
that a man, swinging his arms violently in a crowd, struck the 
nose of a passer-by. The injured man objected, but the other 
man answered: “This is a free country.” “Yes,” was the reply, 
“but your liberty ends where my nose begins.” 

The problem of democracy is this: “How to utilize without 
waste the tremendously potent forces of human life that are 
everywhere about us? ” The problem is largely individual. The 
wealth in character of the state is, in the long run, the wealth in 
character of the individuals composing it. Every social struc¬ 
ture is the outgrowth of personal ideals. The public school has 
been an efficient agency. It will be more effective in the future 
as, with deeper consecration, superintendents and teachers ad- 


234 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


vance to the unprecedented problems that lie before them. With 
new ideals, new aspirations, new hopes, for the enlarged brother¬ 
hood of America, may we not hope that these dissimilar national¬ 
ities will be incorporated into the newer type of citizenship and 
that we may have a realization of the vision pictured by the 
lamented Grady when he said: 

“Bending low as did Elisha, and praying that our eyes may be 
made to see, we catch a vision of this splendid republic, with its 
mighty forces in balance and unspeakable peace falling upon all 
its children; chief among the federation of the English speaking 
people, with life streaming from its borders and light from its 
mountain tops, working out its salvation under God’s approving 
eye, until the dark continents of earth are opened, the highways 
established, the jargon of the nations stilled, the perplexities of 
Babel straightened and, under one language, one liberty and one 
God, all the nations of the earth, hearkening to the American 
drum beat and girding up their loins, shall march amid the mil¬ 
lennial dawn into the paths of righteousness and peace.” 

* The public school and the new American Spirit. School and Society. 
3:613-17. April 29, 1916. 


THE REGENTS’ EXAMINATION 

Jessie Wallace Hughan 

Muffled sounds of the city climbing to me at the window, 

Here in the summer noon-tide students busily writing, 

Children of quaint-clad immigrants, fresh from the hut and 
the Ghetto, 

Writing of pious Aeneas and funeral cites of Anchises. 

Old-World credo and custom, alien accents and features, 

Plunged in the free-school hopper, grist for the Anglo-Saxons— 

Old-World sweetness and light, and fiery struggle of heroes, 

Flashed on the blinking peasants, dull with the grime of their 
bondage! 

Race that are infant in knowledge, ancient in grief and tradi¬ 
tions— 

Lore that is tranquil with age and starry with gleams of the 
future— 

What is the thing that will come from the might of the ele¬ 
ments blending? 

Neuter and safe shall it be? Or a flame to burst us asunder? 

Scribner’s Magaeine, 56:213. Augu«t, 1914. 


LIBRARIES 


BOOKS FOR FOREIGNERS 

John Cotton Dana 

LIBRARIAN, NEWARK PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Our immigrants gather largely in cities and in groups by 
nationalities. They vote, they learn of the library, they ask for 
books in their native tongues, and their requests are granted. 
But that is a very one-sided statement of the grounds for the 
foreign language movement in American libraries. Though we 
wish to Americanize our immigrants, we also wish them to re¬ 
tain as long as possible an interest and pride in the countries 
from which they come. They adapt themselves almost too com¬ 
pletely and too rapidly to our ways. A savor of their old habits 
and methods of thought would be a welcome addition to our na¬ 
tional diet of industry. If the more intelligent among them 
wish to keep up with the literature of their homes, and to pass 
that interest on to their children—though this is almost impos¬ 
sible, as the children always insist on using English as far as 
possible—then to aid them, through our public libraries, seems 
expedient. It is easy to believe that they find their new home 
still more homelike, and become all the sooner attached to it, 
when they find one of its public institutions giving them a wel¬ 
come in their native tongues. 

Libraries : addresses and essays, p. 286. New York. H. W. Wilson 
& Co. 1916. 

BUYING BOOKS FOR ALIENS (1898) 

Gratia A. Countryman 

PIONEER IN AMERICANIZATION THROUGH BRINGING THE PUBLIC 
LIBRARY TO THE ALIEN 

This paper does not expect to settle the question raised by 
the subject “Shall public libraries buy foreign literature for the 
benefit of the foreign population?” but will try to put into shape 


236 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


the reasons that have gradually brought the writer to the views 
now held. 

We will restrict the meaning of the phrase “foreign litera¬ 
ture” to the lighter classes of literature, for no one questions that 
much of scientific and historical literature and works of classic 
value must be purchased in the original; but the present question 
refers to works that will not be used by English readers, but are 
purchased solely for the foreign element among us. 

When the Minneapolis Public Library was opened eight years 
ago a fairly large number of books in the German, French and 
Scandinavian languages, and a few in Italian, were put into cir¬ 
culation. A little while after there came a request for some He¬ 
brew books from a number of Jews, who did not desire their 
children’s mental development to be aided solely by means of 
English books; consequently, a few Hebrew books were pur¬ 
chased, to the utter discomfiture of the head cataloger. Then 
came a Welsh minister with a list of Welsh books, and those 
were bought. The next request was from a colony of French- 
Canadians who lived near one of our branches. Their list was 
honored and the books sent to the branch located near them. 
Finally, the Russians put in their plea and got a small collection 
of Russian books, and the Italians petitioned for more, and it may 
be only a question of time before the Hungarians, Poles, Armeni¬ 
ans and Japanese file similar petitions and the head cataloger be 
obliged to resign her position, not being a polyglot dictionary. 

Under such experiences, which, I presume, are repeated in 
every large library, the question naturally arises: Should a li¬ 
brary yield to these requests of a foreign element? Is it a proper 
function of the Public Library to buy books in so many lan¬ 
guages, and if so, where shall it draw the line? 

For a number of years my views were similar to those ex¬ 
pressed in an editorial of the Library Journal of October, 1894, 
which were in substance that the purchase of books in foreign 
languages should be minimized; that the library should not serve 
to perpetuate the barriers of race and language; that the library 
should be wholly American, and its influence tend wholly toward 
Americanizing the foreign-born. 

This seemed to me the true view until, happening over at the 
branch where the French-Canadians were just receiving their new 
books, I saw them gathering around these treasures like flies 
around a molasses-jug, and, with heads close together, buzzing 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


237 


with suppressed excitement and delight. I knew then that those 
few books would bring happiness for days to come. My previous 
opinions were shaken, and the question naturally arose: “Were 
they worse citizens because the city library supplied to them 
books in their own native tongue? Were they less good Amer¬ 
icans because their adopted country and its institutions recognized 
their peculiar needs?” Nay, verily, I thought not; rather their 
feeling would be one of gratitude and a sense of obligation that 
would bind them to the library and this country more than the 
national literature could possibly separate them. 

In one of our branches, which is located in a district largely 
Scandinavian, we have shelved several thousand Scandinavian 
books. I have never seen a Scandinavian child go near those 
shelves. I remarked upon this one day to a Norwegian, and 
asked him if he didn’t want his children to keep their language 
and a knowledge of their native literature. He answered, in 
broken English, to the effect that his children had to live in this 
country and he wanted them to keep our language and our books 
and our customs. I asked him if that feeling was quite general, 
and he answered that it was, so far as he knew; and then he 
added that his children could not be made to read anything but 
English if he wanted them to. That did not sound as if foreign 
literature in the library were producing anything but American 
loyalty. Certainly this Norwegian wanted his children to be 
American, and his children insisted upon being American. He 
himself wanted books in his own language, but that did not keep 
up in his mind any race barrier. 

The night schools in our cities are attended very largely by 
foreigners—young men who are anxious to read and speak our 
language, who look forward to being American citizens. The 
library does not need to supply foreign literature to any extent 
for them or the children. But the older ones can scarcely be 
expected to forget their fatherland or to cease loving their 
mother tongue. Besides this, they either speak English with 
difficulty or not at all, so that if they cannot get any books in 
their own tongue they will be likely to read nothing at all. It 
does not appear that the library would be making better citizens 
of them by doing nothing at all for them than if they supplied 
them with books they could read. 

What, on the whole, could be more Americanizing than the 
feeling of loyalty which these alien people would soon feel for 


238 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


the cosmopolitan library that welcomes them and in which they 
have a part and a place? 

I believe still that the library should be an Americanizing in¬ 
stitution, but it must reach these people before it can Amer¬ 
icanize them, and if it succeeds in making any one of them more 
contented and happy it has to that extent made him a more loyal 
American. Moreover, will not this land of his adoption profit 
more by the foreigner whose intelligence is increased, even if it 
is done through the medium of his own language? Discontent 
with surroundings and ignorance are the causes of rebellion and 
disloyalty to one’s country, and both of these the library may 
help to dispel from the foreigner. 

In the twenty-five years ending with 1895 one-third of the in¬ 
crease in our population was from foreign immigration; great 
numbers of these were paupers and illiterates, who join the ranks 
of the anarchists and learn to rail against us. If these foreigners 
become insane, we care for them in our hospitals; if they become 
criminal, we pay for bringing them to justice and keeping up the 
machinery of reformatories and prisons. The public funds are 
drawn upon continually in their behalf. It is certainly just as 
legitimate a use of public funds that some of it be used by the 
public library for the elevation of these same men and women. 
The money spent in foreign literature may mean just that much 
less for prisons and asylums. It is the ounce of prevention. 

We are accustomed to use all of our ingenuity to attract to 
our libraries the illiterate of our own race; we urge their chil¬ 
dren to come, and allure them with picture-books and pleasant 
rooms; we want the newsboy and the factory girl, but we want 
also the maids in our kitchens and the foreign laborer who digs 
our streets. Every reason which justifies our efforts to attract 
in the one instance does in the other, and if foreign literature is 
the bait which will draw any foreign element, then it is as legit¬ 
imate as any attraction that we use. 

One objection urged against the purchase of books in foreign 
languages is that we exclude from seventy-five to eighty per cent 
of the readers from using the book, but that might be said of 
almost any class in the library. Why purchase technical or pro¬ 
fessional books, or rare and valuable books, for fully eighty per 
cent of the readers will be excluded from reading them. It can¬ 
not be a wrong to these eighty per cent of the readers that the 
other twenty per cent are getting what they want. It is for the 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


239 


benefit of the whole community that every part of it should b* 
enlightened. 

But the library, while having obligations to the state in the 
way of making good citizens, and to the community to spend the 
funds legitimately, has obligations also toward the individual. 
There are strangers within our gates to whom we owe hospital¬ 
ities and whose lives we can cheer. How many times do we hear 
of the loneliness of these people who have been transplanted, and 
how their loneliness drives them into morbidness and to the verge 
of insanity. Their mental growth is stopped and their lives stag¬ 
nated. The library owes something to every individual man, 
woman and child. The library has no better cause for existence 
than to bring sunshine into individual lives, and it has not wholly 
fulfilled its mission if it leaves whole masses of people unreached. 

It would be difficult to reach any conclusion as to where a 
library shall draw the line in providing for different nationalities. 
The state of library finances usually settles the fact that there 
must be a line. We cannot do all that we would do, and different 
conditions make the problem different in every library. 

In theory, even if not possible in practice, it would seem that 
any nationality which had a desire for books and interest and 
enterprise enough to ask for them ought to have them, even if it 
must be in small quantities. The very asking is the furnishing of 
an opportunity. If we do not seek them in the highways and 
hedges, but find them actually knocking at the door, they surely 
ought to have a seat in the feast. This might be impracticable 
and even impossible in many libraries, but up to the present date 
the Minneapolis Public Library has never refused a request from 
any nationality, even if the finances allowed but a small outlay. 
We believe that by this means of drawing them to us we will 
assimilate them most rapidly, and by contact will dissolve race 
prejudice. 

To sum up, we believe that the buying of foreign literature 
will help rather than hinder to foster Americanism. We believe 
that it is a legitimate use of public funds, and that it meets a 
duty which we actually owe to these strangers. We believe, also, 
that it is true of libraries, as of individuals, that “He liveth best 
who loveth best.” 

The Library Journal. 23:339-31. June, 1898. 


240 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


AN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY AND THE 
LIBRARY 

J. Maud Campbell 

PTONEER LIBRARIAN WORKER WITH IMMIGRANTS, SECRETARY MASSA¬ 
CHUSETTS IMMIGRATION COMMISSION 

Our opportunity came with our work among the foreign¬ 
speaking people—through having a beautiful little building, given 
to the town by one of our big-hearted citizens, situated in a sec¬ 
tion surrounded by between 12,000 and 13,000 people' who could 
not speak English, far less read it. 

Perhaps natural curiosity prompted the first invasion of our 
library by this foreign population. Many foreigners came to 
look, and when they found newspapers in their home languages, 
their pride was touched and appeals came in to us from members 
of different nationalities for books in their own languages. The 
accumulation of about 1,000 volumes in eleven languages has 
furnished many amusing and interesting experiences. Quite con¬ 
fidently I started out to get books in languages and literatures of 
which I knew little or nothing, thinking it would be a very simple 
matter; it did not prove as simple as it sounds. So my next move 
was to get the people to say specifically what they wanted and 
where the books could be purchased, and our orders went flying 
to dealers in towns you cannot even find on the map. But the 
books came and gave satisfaction, only to be followed by the cry 
for “more, more.” However even the most patriotic Slovac, Bo¬ 
hemian, Pole, or Russian has to confess that from two to five 
hundred tiles exhaust the popular books in his literature, and my 
patrons came to the point where they had no more titles to sug¬ 
gest, but wanted more books to read. We then asked them why 

they did not read English books, for while we had only a few 

hundred in their languages, we had many thousands in English, 
many of which related to their own countries. The reply was 

that they could not read English, and when we asked them why 

they did not learn there came the astonishing answer that it was 
very difficult for a working man to get any one to teach him to 
read—there were some young men who went around tutoring at 
fifty cents a lesson, but they were so busy it was hard to get them. 
What about our boasted public schools? A visit to the board of 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


241 


education brought the information that no state assistance was 
given for the education of persons over twenty years of age, and 
anything done for adults must be done by the city alone. 

I have little patience with the sentiment so often heard—“we 
can’t expect to do anything with the adult immigrant, but we will 
do the best we can for the children”—and I fear that expresses a 
spirit of false economy. Statisticians have figured that every 
child carried through the public schools to what is called “the 
age of production” has cost the state $1,000 for education and 
protection, and there are still seven years to pass before the 
boys have a voice in our national government. Yet we are willing 
to spend this money and wait all these years in order that when 
the boys do claim the privileges of citizenship, they shall cast an 
intelligent vote. Now here come the adult immigrants, bringing 
the supply of muscle vre need so much for development of the 
country, without having cost us one cent either for education or 
protection, and becoming, at once, not only producers, but con¬ 
sumers. Of these the majority come with the prime of life be¬ 
fore them, more coming between the ages of twenty and forty 
than at any other age period. In twelve states in the Union they 
can vote in one year after declaring their intention, in no state 
do they have to wait more than seven years, and in the majority 
only five, and in New Jersey there are today over 48,709 males of 
voting age who cannot speak English. Can we afford to say it is 
not worth while doing anything for these people? They are go¬ 
ing to become citizens—not always because they care to vote, or 
are interested in the welfare of our government, but for a thou¬ 
sand and one personal reasons they think citizenship will ad¬ 
vance; they are going to vote, and they are going to sell their 
votes just as long as there are American traitors enough to their 
country to offer to buy them. I understand the new naturaliza¬ 
tion law has made it compulsory for a foreigner to be able to 
read and write in English before becoming a citizen, which makes 
it more incumbent upon us to see that facilities are offered to 
them to enable them to meet this just requirement. 

In the cities, adults are admitted to night schools, but in classes 
with the young people who are compelled to go to school at 
night, if they are to be allowed to work during the day, and some¬ 
times these young people are not very ambitious students. Then 
as the schools must be conducted as economically as possible, 
the teachers who teach in the day schools are allowed to increase 
their salaries by teaching in the evening schools. They do not 


242 


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understand the languages spoken by the foreign pupils, so these 
people cannot ask questions, if there is anything they do not un¬ 
derstand. Hearing no protest the teachers go gaily on, and the 
pupils lose one step after another until they become discouraged 
and stop school, feeling that it is too difficult for them, that they 
can never learn. I do not think it ever enters the minds of these 
people to question the method of instruction, if they do not 
learn; the fault must be theirs, there is nothing wrong with the 
schools. But discussions with several nationalities have brought 
out the facts that each nationality would prefer to have one class 
for all of its own people, mixed classes being confusing; they 
want a teacher who will understand their language, so they can 
ask questions; the regular school curriculum is not what they 
want; they want simply to learn to speak, read and write in 
English, and to know some of the more important laws of the 
community, which they must not break. The law holds a very 
important place in the eyes of the foreigner, yet in spite of their 
interest in this country, we cannot find books in their own lan¬ 
guages giving the state laws, city laws, police ordinances, or 
board of health regulations of the cities of this state.* The 
only way for these people to find out what the law is, is to break 
it, and be arrested and fined. 

Of course, the remedy for ignorance is education, and on 
bringing these facts to the attention of those controlling the edu¬ 
cational interests of New Jersey, the legislature last winter au¬ 
thorized the Governor to appoint a commission to investigate and 
report upon the actual condition of the adult immigrant. On the 
strength of the report made, Governor Stokes in his annual mes¬ 
sage asked the incoming legislature to do something to assist the 
foreign-speaking people to learn the conditions surrounding their 
lives here. He suggested that this might well come under the 
state board of education, and after conference with the members 
of this board, a bill was prepared, offering state aid to munic¬ 
ipalities desiring schools for adult immigrants, providing the 
municipalities raised an equal sum, as is done in regard to manual 
training in this state. These schools will follow the recom¬ 
mendations made by the Immigrant Commission as to subjects 
taught, teachers, etc., and if the bill becomes a law, it will enable 
any town in the state to offer educational assistance to its for¬ 
eign-speaking inhabitants. 


Number* of such books are printed now in all languages.— Editor. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


243 


It is well to speak of things we succeed in securing, but per¬ 
haps it is also as well to acknowledge where we fail. I have em¬ 
phasized this subject, as an educational opportunity but mainly in 
the hope that we may be enabled to secure the right sort of litera¬ 
ture on this country, historically and socially, in foreign lan¬ 
guages. So far we have nothing in view but a couple of small 
primers, in a most elementary form. I do not like foreigners to 
become imbued with the idea that Orsi, Romussi, Cermak, 
Schmidt, Dyniwicz, or Badad are American historians, yet these 
are the people who are writing our history for them. Bryce’s 
“American commonwealth” has been translated, but recognized 
American historians are unknown to the foreigners. Perhaps 
the schools will remedy this lack of literature, and I wish it were 
possible for the library associations to help. . . . 

The Library Journal. 32:157-8. April, 1907. 


THE LIBRARY AND THE FOREIGN 
SPEAKING MAN 

Peter Roberts 

SECRETARY INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE, YOUNG MEN’S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

When the books of Lester F. Ward were issued in Russia the 
censors seized and confiscated them; when Mr. Paryski, a printer 
of Polish books and papers in the city of Toledo, sends his com¬ 
modity to Russia, he has to bribe some of the Governors of the 
Provinces, and when bribes do not work his agents risk their 
life and liberty. In Southern Italy and the Balkan States the 
press is under the surveillance of ecclesiastics, and what the 
church condemns has little chance to see the light of day. Censor¬ 
ship, either by the government or the church, is exercised with 
rigor in many countries of Europe, and not a few men are now 
refugees in America because they advocated, either by pen or 
tongue, the freedom of the press and liberty of speech; others, 
less fortunate in making their escape, now suffer in prison. 

It is very different in America. The freedom of the press 
and liberty of speech have been more fully realized in this coun¬ 
try than in any other part of the world. We have thousands of 
libraries founded for the people, where all, regardless of social 
status, are invited to come; books are not withheld, but offered 


24 * 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


freely. We believe that the degree of intelligence found in the 
rank and file of the masses in the measure of success of a de¬ 
mocracy. The trend of modern civilization is to popularize 
knowledge—make it as attractive as possible to the masses. In 
thousands of cities in America, men who want to read can find 
well lighted and well heated rooms, where they may study a 
range of subjects not in the perspective of scholars a century 
ago. This free press, free speech, free dissemination of knowl¬ 
edge and inducements to learn, is a priceless heritage and should 
be passed on to coming generations. 

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, there are more than ten 
million peoples, the majority of whom live in urban communi¬ 
ties ; more than 40 per cent, are of foreign birth, which means a 
population of nearly four and one quarter millions. We some¬ 
times feel apprehensive of American institutions when gross ig¬ 
norance of them is met with among the native-born; but what 
shall we say of the four and one-quarter millions who have not 
been trained in our public schools, whose conception of govern¬ 
ment is often a blood-stained sword of a smoking musket, and 
whose culture and training have fallen short of ideals in our re¬ 
public? If the heritage of free speech and a free press is to be 
retained, if we hope to perpetuate a system of free education, if 
refined agencies consecrated to the dissemination of knowledge 
are to be continued, the genius of the people must be cultivated 
in the foreign-born, so that they will fully appreciate the effort 
made to bring the light of truth and beauty to the masses. 

What can the libraries do to bring about this consummation? 
They can carefully study the needs of the foreigner and intel¬ 
ligently meet these needs. I will mention a few of them. 

A prime need of the foreign-speaking is a knowledge of the 
English language, and it is our privilege and duty to help him to 
secure the same. Before you meet again in your annual session 
nine hundred thousand foreigners will have landed in America, 
all of whom speak a foreign tongue. In Philadelphia and Pitts¬ 
burgh, Hoboken and Passaic, there are whole sections where 
nothing but a foreign tongue is used. Walk the streets of New¬ 
ark or Scranton on a Saturday evening when the wage-earners do 
their marketing, and the sound of foreign tongues prevails on all 
sides. As long as these people use only their mother tongue, 
they will be alien in sentiment and spirit. They will not enter 
into our life nor the spirit of America. The first step in the 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


245 


process of assimilation is a knowledge of the English language. 
It should be the concern of employers of labor, educators in city 
and state, statesmen of state and nation, social workers, religious 
and philanthropic agencies, to cooperate in this great undertak¬ 
ing. The Pole should retain his mother tongue, the German 
should continue to speak German, the Italian should retain his 
native language, but if these men come to live in America, it is 
best for all concerned that they should learn as soon as possible 
the language of the shop and factory, the market and the court, 
the forum and the pulpit. 

Librarians can do much to help this work. In the Tompkins 
Square Library. New York City, a class of thirty-eight foreign¬ 
ers meets twice a week to study English. It was brought to¬ 
gether by an assistant librarian, who is of foreign birth. In 
another library fifty Bohemians meet regularly for instruction, 
brought together by an assistant librarian who is a Bohemian. 
The head librarian takes interest in the class, visits it and gets 
acquainted with the men; if any are absent he sends cards to 
them urging better attendance; if they come to the library they 
talk to them about the work. The librarian keeps a supply of 
blank forms on hand which may be filled by anyone who wants 
to join the class; these forms are given the men who visit the 
building to take out books in foreign tongues. The force in the 
library advertise the work, and never forget to speak highly of 
the efforts of both teacher and scholar. 

Does this work pay? The librarians say it does. Last year 
it was an experiment: this year the librarians ask for classes. 
The foreigners are brought in touch with the library, the libra¬ 
rian gets closer to the foreigners and revises his judgment con¬ 
cerning them, while the quiet, refining influences of the library 
act favorably upon the alien. What we do in Manhattan is pos¬ 
sible everywhere. If all libraries, having available room for a 
class in English, and having foreigners to draw upon, were to do 
this, a mighty force to help the foreigner would be set in opera¬ 
tion. 

Another need of the foreigner is naturalization. Thousands 
of men knock at the door of citizenship, but they cannot enter, 
for the day of wholesale manufacturing of alien voters is past. 
Uncle Sam has placed this privilege within the sacred precincts 
of a court of record, where the feet of sinister politicians do not 
tread. The alien has a right to expect a helping hand to secure 


246 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


his naturalization papers, and it ought to be our privilege to give 
it. In this work librarians have helped materially. Indeed, the 
teaching of English and classes in naturalization are closely re¬ 
lated. Many a teacher gives his pupils a knowlege of the lan¬ 
guage by discussing questions pertaining to the government of 
our country. Few foreign-speaking men can prepare themselves 
for naturalization by reading. A man may, in the quiet of his 
room, answer all the questions a judge may ask, but in the court 
room he is confused and his English leaves him. Our men in 
weekly classes under the guidance of a young lawyer discuss the 
principles of government, and when they appear in court they are 
confident that they can pass the examination, and they do so with 
a skill that would put many a native-born young man to shame. 

The foreigner also should have a knowledge of the history of 
America, its resources, its institutions, its ideals, and an acquaint¬ 
ance with our habits and customs. Some cities and towns plan 
courses of lectures, but the foreigner is not in the perspective of 
the committee preparing the program. It is good work to give 
English-speaking men in cities and towns a glimpse into the realm 
of art and science, fiction and poetry, inventions and recent dis¬ 
coveries, but the foreigner ought also to be taken into considera¬ 
tion and a special course of instruction prepared for him. In 
every city where more than five thousand foreigners live there 
should be a hall specially prepared for their benefit and into 
which they should be let on stated occasions. On the one side of 
the room should be a map of the United States in relief showing 
the cotton belt, the wheat and corn territories, the forests, the 
fruit gardens of the nation, our wealth in cattle, our mineral re¬ 
sources, etc. Alongside of the map should be samples of the 
product of the soil, pictures of the cattle on a thousand hills and 
an exhibition of the productions of mill and factory. On the other 
three walls should be pictures devoted to history; the first would 
cover the period from the landing of Columbus to the struggle for 
independence, depicting the conflict of nations for a new world. 
The story of the pilgrim and cavalier, the records of red men 
and white men during peace and conflict, and the strong faces 
of brave souls who laid the foundation of American civilization. 
The second would tell of conflict: the conflict of arms, when 
brave men risked all in the fight for independence and in the 
struggle for the preservation of the Union; the conflict of peace, 
when brave men marched westward winning an unknown land, 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


247 


and never resting until their feet touched the waters of the 
Pacific Ocean. On this wall should be the strong faces of 
martyrs in peace and in war—men who carried the Stars and 
Stripes from the Alleghenies to the Cordilleras, and bequeathed 
to subsequent generations a continent to explore and develop. 
The third wall would depict the matchless industrial progress of 
the United States: the railroads that thread the continent, the 
ships that traverse rivers, lakes and oceans, the marvelous inven¬ 
tions to convert the ore of the hills to finished products, the 
triumphs of engineers and statesmen; and here also would be 
the faces of uncrowned kings whose will was stronger than iron 
and steel and whose works bless and enrich the sons of mem 
Into this hall the foreigner should come and there he would be 
introduced into the sources of that enthusiasm that kindles the 
ardor of fifteen million scholars in our public schools; that shone 
in the beacon lights that led thousands of warriors to die for 
their country; and which today keeps bright the flame of patri¬ 
otism upon eighteen million altars in the homes of the land. By 
this means we should set aglow with holy ardor the heart of the 
foreigner so that he would give us the best that is in him for 
the land of his adoption. 

If there are any libraries that will try this experiment it 
would be worth while, for it may be pioneer work to be copied 
by cities interested in the foreigner. 

The foreigner also needs appreciation. America received 
much from the old world. Each nation on the continent of 
Europe has contributed something to the advancement of civiliza¬ 
tion. It is our privilege to acknowledge this. It can be done by 
arranging talks upon eminent men of foreign birth in our own 
nation and also men in foreign lands who have rendered invalu¬ 
able service to humanity. The story of most nations is instinct 
with self-sacrifice and self-surrender; incidents of heroism and 
glorious achievement may be found in every nation represented 
in our immigration streams. If lectures incorporating these in¬ 
cidents were systematically given the foreigner would feel better, 
his self-respect would be strengthened and the son and daughter 
of the foreign-born would look with great complacency and sym¬ 
pathy upon the old folks whose heritage of heroism and achieve¬ 
ments is by no means small. It is unfortunate to divide foreign- 
born families, but this is inevitable if we lead the children of 
foreign-born to a full appreciation of America and its interestng 


248 


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story, and forget that God imparts the stuff of which heroes are 
made without respect to nationalities. 

In addition to lectures upon heroes in peace and war from 
among various nationalities, much can be done to remove preju¬ 
dice against the foreigner if a wise selection of books were made 
dealing intelligently and sympathetically with the question of im¬ 
migration. Books giving the story of the nations from which 
we draw our immigrants should be recommended to the native- 
born. There is no antidote against prejudice as effective as in¬ 
timate knowledge of the foreigner. The more we know of each 
other the better we get along. The same law holds true with the 
foreigner the better we know him the less objectionable he ap¬ 
pears, no matter what nationality he represents. 

My last point is that the foreigner must be touched upon the 
spiritual side. A poem, a picture, a song or a beautiful building 
has a soothing effect upon all of us; so has it on the foreigner. 
These men who come from foreign lands, where song, poetry, 
architecture and sculpture are a part of their daily life, are re¬ 
fined, no matter if they are unskilled workers. An Italian laborer 
bows as gracefully as a courtier, a Russian peasant knows how to 
show his appreciation; they have been taught gentility in songs 
of the ancients, in the folklore of their ancestors, in the ballads 
of their country, and in the beautiful temples and cathedrals 
hoary with the weight of years. This refinement which sits so 
naturally on the foreign workingman is worth preserving, and it 
can be done if, in every town, centers of refinement are estab¬ 
lished to which the working people can go. 

I have seen libraries that have caught the vision of beauty and 
truth in their relation to the town. It is expressed as far as 
means and opportunity allow. A piece of statuary that is grace¬ 
ful, a picture that has harmonious tones, and figures which are 
refined, the colors on wall and wood are quiet and tasty, order 
and cleanliness are apparent on all sides. No one can enter such 
a place without feeling better for it. I hope to see the day when 
every town and city will have a place of refinement where work¬ 
ingmen can see a beautiful picture, hear a sweet song, and feel 
the quieting, refining influences of architecture. These would be 
temples from every part of which radiates a spirit that subdues 
the savage beast in the human breast, strikes off the rough cor¬ 
ners of our coarse nature and raises the soul into closer touch 
with the spirit that reigns and works for righteousness, peace 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


249 


and justice in this world of ours. This is not a dream; it is 
realized in part in many libraries, and may the day come when 
it will be realized more fully in every library in the land. 

The Library Journal. 36:496. October, 1911. 

THE LIBRARY’S PART IN MAKING 
AMERICANS 

The present war, involving the countries from which America 
derives so large a part of its immigrant population, and arousing 
in this population such diverse national sympathies and passions, 
brings to the public library one problem with special emphasis 
and directness. Hitherto, work with foreigners has been largely 
a matter for academic discussion and, except in a few localities 
where this population is particularly numerous or where the libra¬ 
rian is particularly interested, it has been treated as merely a side 
issue. Some earnest library workers have even questioned 
whether it is right or patriotic to provide reading for those who 
cannot use the common language of our country. Now the mat¬ 
ter is no longer one for debate, discussion or difference of opin¬ 
ion. To everyone who loves his country, one duty now stands 
out as supreme, to develop in our entire population, whatever its 
racial sympathies or whatever its native tongue, such a regard 
and devotion for our country and its institutions as shall put 
America first in the hearts of all who breathe our air or share 
in our common life and privileges. The supreme duty of the 
hour for every American and every American institution is to 
cultivate, solidify and unify the sentiment of American patri¬ 
otism, to develop this sentiment to such a point that it shall 
assure inner unity and concord amid all the conflicting appeals of 
foreign interests. 

The task is a huge one. There are, according to the last cen¬ 
sus, 6,646,817 men in this country, old enough to vote, who were 
born in other lands. These people constitute twenty-five per cent 
of the whole male population old enough to vote, Less than half 
this number, about 3,000,000, are naturalized citizens, three and a 
half millions are not. The figures are startling. Three and a 
half millions of men, over twenty-one years old, living in this 
country, who, whether through choice or neglect, are legal sub¬ 
jects of foreign countries! Numerous institutions and civic or- 


250 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


ganizations have lately awakened to the seriousness and possible 
dangers of this situation, and have started a nationwide propa¬ 
ganda for the turning of these aliens into Americans. It has 
already met with notable success. With the great majority of 
these foreigners in our midst, there is a natural predisposition in 
favor of America, making this propaganda an easy one. They 
are here because of this predisposition; the present state of the 
Old World gives added force to this predisposition. All that is 
needed, in most cases, is a quickening of impulse, an awakening 
to the meaning of citizenship and its privileges, a better under¬ 
standing of the things for which this country stands, or a spirit 
of welcome that shall make them feel at home and among friends 
in their new country. For the rendering of this service we can 
think of no institution more peculiarly fitted than the public 
library, and therefore no institution on which there rests a more 
direct responsibility. In the free public library, America appears 
at its very best in the eyes of the foreigner. In its open doors 
are typified all that he has come to America to seek, opportunity, 
equality, freedom, the privilege of entering into the intellectual 
and moral heritage of the race. It needs only to be true to its 
own proper spirit and function and to make due provision for the 
part it is thus called upon to play in this matter to become a 
powerful factor in this great work of transforming aliens into 
loyal and patriotic Americans. The question is not, as it has so 
often been put, does it owe the foreigners this service? The 
question is, does it owe America this service? and to this ques¬ 
tion there can be but one answer. 

Editorial, New York Libraries. 4:235-6. August, 19x5. 


THE HOME 


THE IMMIGRANT FAMILY 

By Sophonisba P. Breckinridge 

SOCIAL WORKER, LAWYER, SECRETARY IMMIGRANT PROTECTIVE LEAGUE, 
DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL INVESTIGATION, CHICAGO SCHOOL OF 
CIVICS AND PHILANTHROPY 

From the point of view of the community the immigrant fam¬ 
ily presents itself as the problem of assimilation. This should 
mean the exercise of hospitality, offering what we have of good, 
and asking from them what is strong and vigorous for the com¬ 
mon life. This is not the way in which it is always regarded. 
We use the bodily strength of the immigrants and transmute it 
into railroads and great structures of all kinds, but the peculiar 
values of their historic background, of their aspiration to a 
larger freedom, of their desire that their children should have 
nobler, freer lives than they have had—from these we often fail 
to extract any beauty or grace. We encourage them to exchange 
the scarf and shawl for the transfigurator and the America hat, 
and think we have assimilated them. We substitute the moving- 
picture show and the dance hall for the village festival and the 
folk dance and are not mindful of the waste and loss of it all. 
We have invented or applied several devices, especially for the 
service of children. We think rightly of the school as a great 
Americanizing device; but we are learning that the school cannot 
adequately serve the children without taking notice of the homes 
from which they come. The school visitor or the visiting 
teacher will help in the direction of interpreting the school and 
the home to each other to their mutual advantage. Other impor¬ 
tant devices are, of course, the health department, supplemented 
by adequate birth registration, supervision and control of mid¬ 
wives, and sanitary inspection, and the recreation center, equipped 
to serve the social needs of the entire family group. . . . 

But we may turn to look at the same problem from the point 
of view of the family, when it becomes the problem of adjust¬ 
ment or of readjusting old habits and practices to new demands 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


252 

and new ideals. This must be at best full of hardship and pain. 
Strangers in a strange land, with language and customs different, 
the great agony of home-sickness alone would bind to the new 
arrivals any heart which had passed through the same kind of an 
uprooting. And to this suffering, are often added poverty, ex¬ 
ploitation and frequently disaster. Now, most families succeed 
in making this readjustment and respond to these influences of 
assimilation. Problems of poverty are found in our crowded 
foreign neighborhood, but unless they are complicated by some 
retaring influence, such as peculiarly corrupt political organiza¬ 
tion or a sectarian religious influence narrow beyond what is 
common, they are hopeful rather than hopeless, they are prob¬ 
lems connected with the efforts to get up and out on to a higher 
level of comfort and efficiency. There is, however, the small 
number of immigrant family groups who are admitted but de¬ 
ported within three years of their arrival, who fail piteously, and 
in. connection with whose difficulties, I believe, social workers 
have not taken advantage of their full opportunity. . . . 

The immigrant family in the community, but not of the community. 
Proceedings of the Conference of Charities and Corrections, p. 70-71, 1914. 


TEACHING THE IMMIGRANT WOMAN 

Olivia Howard Dunbar 

When Mrs. Annie L. Hansen, under the direction of the 
North American Civic League for Immigrants, undertook single- 
handed not long ago the domestic education of the immigrant 
households of Buffalo, there was no cheerful precedent to guide 
her. However, she knew very well what she was about and was 
thoroughly equipped for it, as domestic educating isn’t a profes¬ 
sion that can be taken up casually by women who have merely 
text-book knowledge and a vague sociological bent. Mrs. Han¬ 
sen had had training in two hospitals, had been both a private 
and a district nurse, had kept house for eleven years, and had the 
further essential of a winning personality. In short, she was 
ready for practically any tenement emergency. Having decided 
to begin with the Polish and Hungarian territory, her first move 
was to establish friendly co-operative relations with such schools, 
hospitals, churches and charity organizations as had any connec¬ 
tion with this district, obtaining from these various sources a 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


253 


list of families that because of poverty or ignorance or illness 
were in especial need of the kind of help it was her vocation to 
give. She then set out to make her first tentative round of visits. 

Of course they were not easy visits to make. Well-dressed 
strangers of competent air so seldom knocked at those shabby 
doors, there seemed no reason for believing that one of them 
had actually come with simple, neighborly intent! In a few 
cases, it is true, the women were perceptive enough to be in¬ 
stantly friendly and grateful. Others were, quite naturally, se¬ 
cretive and suspicious. One or two were openly hostile; even, 
through their narrowly opened doorways, fluently vituperative. 
But the second visit dispelled all suspicion, and the third often 
established an almost disconcerting intimacy. This was obvi¬ 
ously because Mrs. Hansen did not limit herself to pointing out 
the women’s mistakes and giving them advice. On the contrary, 
this is what she did: 

At her first visit she would find, perhaps, clustering about an 
anxious, harried mother, a group including a pallid baby and four 
or five anaemic, listless brothers and sisters. Sympathetic ques¬ 
tioning would reveal that the unhappy mother was utterly at a 
loss as to how to feed her brood in this strange country, where 
meat was so costly and grocers’ food didn’t agree with the chil¬ 
dren and nothing was as it had been at home. But what did 
they eat—milk? Yes, canned milk, from the grocer. Bread? 
Yes, from the baker; small loaf, that cost too much and was too 
soon eaten. Soup? Yes, canned soup; sometimes very poor. 

Noting these points and finding that every woman she visited 
made practically the same confession, Mrs. Hansen would make 
her second visit armed with packages of cereals. The Polish 
mother would shake here head with dismal scepticism at the sight 
of this odd, dry, uninteresting-looking food. Nevertheless she 
watched and wondered and learned as she was shown with hov? 
little trouble and at what small cost this new substance could be 
served as a palatable and nourishing meal, sure to make pale 
children healthy and strong if they ate enough of it. 

But dietetic reform did not stop here. Every mother was 
willing to admit that her baby was the most important member 
of the family. But in that case, she was told, the question of its 
diet should come first of household considerations, and the funda¬ 
mental truth was taught her that babies can not live on “canned” 
milk. Fresh milk was shortly insinuated in its stead in every 


254 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


household where there was a young child, and in as many others 
as possible. The extravagance and folly of buying baker’s bread 
was next taken up, but not without at the same time teaching 
the women to make their own bread. The value and economy of 
substantial homemade soups and stews were learned with sur¬ 
prising readiness. 

As the lessons progressed various pleasant things came to 
pass. The encouraged mothers grew cheerful as their languid 
babies learned to smile. The cereal and soup fed children throve. 
Where mere fault-finding would have had no result, practical 
demonstrations, carefully adapted to the woman’s comprehension, 
captivated and entranced. Not only did the pupil herself take 
great pride in preparing a new dish, but neighbors, friends and 
cousins sprang up in great numbers to share in the new and ex¬ 
citing domestic gospel. A certain Ruthenian woman proved so 
teachable that she rapidly passed the elementary stage, and one 
Saturday a patient Educator (the staff had shortly been increased 
to four) called to help her prepare for Sunday some simple em¬ 
bellishments of the austere diet that had prevailed through the 
week. Dropping in on Monday to see whether the husband and 
children had enjoyed their simple treat, she found, to her amaze¬ 
ment that the tenement was swarming with neighbors, all de¬ 
lightedly and noisily engaged in eating up the remains of Sun¬ 
day’s carnival of sponge cake, coffee bread and raised biscuit. 
Nor did she escape without promising to visit each insistent guest 
at her own home and teach her to construct these delicate 
marvels for herself. 

In the matter of clothing the women were equally ignorant 
and equally teachable. The mothers were sincere in protesting 
that they would be glad to make cheap, simple garments for 
themselves and their children if they only knew how. In these 
cases they were supplied with a pattern and enough material for 
one garment and given one or more lessons in cutting, fitting and 
fashioning it. These lessons, like those in cooking, proved to 
have an irresistible fascination for whole communities. The Ed¬ 
ucator who had charge of the Italian district found that if she 
made an appointment with one ambitious Italian housewife to cut 
and fit a skirt, a relative would appear within five minutes with a 
piece of white cloth that she must be shown how to convert into 
a shirtwaist, while at more or less regular intervals during the 
afternoon neighbors with soft, persuasive voices and bewitching 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


255 


Italian smiles would present themselves with their individual 
bundles and the entreaty, “Oh, please, missis, me, too!” And as 
she left the house, the exhausting but profitable session finally 
concluded, still other candidates for instruction would pounce 
eagerly from dark doorways to accost the “teacher” and gain her 
promise of help. 

Very often first acquaintance with a family would disclose 
cases of defective vision or of adenoids, which were attended to 
with beneficient despatch. Or an ailing husband in need of specific 
treatment would be marched off to the dispensary and given the 
necessary medicine, so that he could shortly get back to work. 
Or a sick child, lying in bed, would be feverish and fretful for 
lack of simple attentions. 

The opportunity would be seized to teach the mother how to 
bath the child gently without disturbing it, and she would 
further be persuaded to give it clean linen and to leave the win¬ 
dow open. Such lessons as these were naturally less popular. 
While it may be easy to interest untaught but strongly prejudiced 
women in cooking and sewing, it is never anything short of a 
heroic labor, as all missionaries to the poor have discovered, to 
reconcile them to water and air. 

One Polish woman confessed that she had never used soap on 
her six-year-old boy, as, because of some temperamental sensi¬ 
tiveness in which she displayed a certain pride, he was afraid of 
water. 

Once a week, therefore, she had washed his hands, conscien¬ 
tiously stopping at the wrists, and then rolled the rest of him in 
a wet blanket! And a family that had been brought to the radi¬ 
cal extreme of leaving a window open while sleeping complained 
persistently of the “draught” until the Educator herself oblig¬ 
ingly nailed a board on the window-frame in such fashion that 
the air reached the sleepers indirectly. 

In fact, it has not been an easy matter to convert whole house¬ 
holds to habits of cleanliness and hygiene. Poverty, unrepaired 
tenements, lack of social stimulus, are all profoundly discourag¬ 
ing factors. However, because of its importance the Educators 
worked hard at this reform. Some women mended their ways 
when at last they were made to understand the reasons for it. 
Others seemed hopelessly slovenly. Among these was an Italian 
woman, notoriously shiftless and unclean, and long the despair of 
various philanthropic agencies. One interview between this 


256 


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woman and the undiscouraged Educator took place in the pres¬ 
ence of her husband. “Why do you bother my wife?” remarked 
this lenient and philosophic consort. “Some people are born 
clean and some dirty, and my wife was born dirty. She’s happy, 
so why bother her?” 

The incredible sequel of this episode is that because of per¬ 
sonal help and constant encouragement on the part of the Ed¬ 
ucator, this woman has now a clean and wholesome home in 
which she takes a naive pride. Indeed, she was so pleased with 
her own advancement that she allowed the Educator to hold a 
class in her home, where little girls and sometimes their mothers 
were taught bed-making and all kinds of household work. 

These classes of young girls, which have been held regularly 
in all the districts, are considered a highly important branch of 
the work. The workers find that all the instruction given the 
girls is carried directly home to the mothers and then applied by 
both. Young girls from twelve to fifteen are taught how to 
make their own garments, an art that interests them no less than 
it does their mothers. They are also given frank and emphatic 
lessons in personal hygiene, rank after rank of them becoming 
speedy and delighted converts to the toothbrush, to frequent 
bathing, and to fresh air. 

They are also taught the danger of coffee-drinking, and what 
constitutes wholesome food. The Educators make a strong ap¬ 
peal to these young creatures by reminding them that they all 
wish to have beautiful faces, clear skins, and happy tempers in 
order to be well loved and have happy homes later on. It is then 
pointed out how these desirable things may be secured, and the 
information is of course received and applied with the greatest 
eagerness. 

Harper’s Bazaar . 47:277-8. June, 1913. 

DOMESTIC EDUCATION AMONG 
IMMIGRANTS 

North American Civic League For Immigrants 

“Domestic Education” is the term applied to a new experi¬ 
ment in education which has been made during the past year by 
the New York-New Jersey Committee of the North American 
Civic League for Immigrants. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


257 


This committee was organized in December, 1909, for the pur¬ 
pose of developing permanent city, state and federal policies re¬ 
garding conditions created by present immigration. Its experi¬ 
ments are made in the two states of New York and New Jersey, 
these experiments being turned over to the responsible agency, 
whether private enterprise, city, state or federal department, as 
soon as a successful policy of meeting conditions has been 
demonstrated. 

With one million immigrants a year arriving in the United 
States, 650,000 coming through the port of New York, and over 
300,000 a year locating in New York and New Jersey, the neces¬ 
sity of definite systems of protection, education, distribution and 
assimilation are only too obvious. 

Educational systems to fit the needs of the newly arrived, ig¬ 
norant and illiterate immigrant become as essential a part of the 
educational policies of city, state and country as educational sys¬ 
tems to meet the needs of the native-born. 

One of the most important educational experiments which the 
New York-New Jersey Committee of the North American Civic 
League for Immigrants has made is Domestic Education. This 
is an experiment to supplement the work of the public schools 
with consecutive, constructive educational work in the homes. 
The great majority of alien children, and children of alien pa¬ 
rents, leave school at the age of fourteen. The boys have re¬ 
ceived practically no training in civics and understand little or 
nothing of their responsibility to the community. The girls have 
received practically no training in the vital things of life. Girls 
of foreign nationalities marry at the age of from fifteen to 
eighteen, wholly unequipped for the problems before them. 

The argument that “our hope is in the rising generation’' 
loses its force when we see all about us evidence that the “rising 
generation” is bringing forth a weaker generation than the pres¬ 
ent generation. The immigrant mothers and fathers know noth¬ 
ing of American standards of living and have little opportunity 
(the mothers, the home-makers, much less than the fathers) of 
coming in contact with American standards, living as they do in 
foreign colonies, speaking their own language, and living accord¬ 
ing to their own standards. They know little or nothing of the 
conditions and temptations to which their boys and girls are ex¬ 
posed in their new surroundings. 

A little over a year ago the New York-New Jersey Commit- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


258 

tee of the North American Civic League for Immigrants started 
in Buffalo, New York, its experiment in Domestic Education, 
and since that time has extended the experiment to New York 
City and Rochester; to Mineville, a mining community of 3,000 
people; to Barren Island, New York, an industrial community of 
1,400 people; a cannery camp at Albion, New York, and an aque¬ 
duct labor camp at Valhalla, thus including three distinct types 
of cities and four distinct types of isolated communities. 

The requirements which the League demands regarding train¬ 
ing of a Domestic Educator are that she shall have had a good 
English education, nursing training, domestic-science training, 
and social experience. The Domestic Educator first makes a 
general surve}^ of her community; a group of thirty to forty 
families most needing education is selected, the work is tactfully 
explained to them, and definite consecutive education is started. 
The instruction given is in— 

1.st. Ventilation—the value of fresh air in its relation to 
health. 

2d. Sanitation—the importance of keeping drain-pipes clear, 
toilets clean, and disposal of garbage and flies. 

3d. Care and feeding of babies, including instruction in pre¬ 
natal care. 

4th. Hygiene—personal and sex hygiene. 

5th. Household Economics—economical purchase and prep¬ 
aration of food; improving appearance and comfort of home. 

6th. Advice in regard to educational, recreational and social 
facilities of the community. 

The work is undertaken slowly, the instruction given almost 
entirely by demonstration, and the reasons for following instruc¬ 
tions are always carefully explained. As the work progresses 
classes in cooking, sewing, treatment of common illnesses, mar¬ 
keting, etc., are organized. Public schools are used when pos¬ 
sible for the classes. 

Harper’s Bazaar. 47:278. June, 1913. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


259 


HOUSING AND AMERICANIZATION 

Morris Knowles 

Americanization is more a psychological process than a phys¬ 
ical one. And yet everyone knows how powerfully his mental 
state is affected by physical condition and surroundings. An old 
Roman proverb reminds us that a healthy mind and spirit can 
reside permanently only in a sound body; and the maxim is no 
less true when we extend* the meaning of “body” to include the 
whole physical environment. 

The evil environment set up by bad housing requires no dem¬ 
onstration here. The time has passed when it will be disputed 
that bad housing injures both personal and public health; that 
overcrowding and lack of privacy lead to immorality; that the 
employee can bring vitality and enthusiasm to his work only when 
he comes from decent home conditions; that contentment is pos¬ 
sible only when leisure hours can be spent in healthful recrea¬ 
tion, free from evil temptation; and that civic spirit and loyalty 
to community, state and nation can be cultivated only in happy 
homes and pleasant environment. The relation of housing to 
Americanization, therefore, is apparent. Decent homes are a 
prime necessity as a physical basis for the development of Amer¬ 
ican ideals in the immigrant who comes to our shores. 

Housing problems, of course, become more serious in propor¬ 
tion as concentration of population increases. The tendency of 
recent years toward combination of industries into large units, 
the resultant concentration of great numbers of employees and 
their families within small areas, and the growth of immigration 
have therefore given especial importance to the influence of hous¬ 
ing on Americanization. The same conditions, moreover, have 
imposed an especial obligation upon the employer, somewhat in 
proportion to the size of his organization. His enterprise and 
the accumulation of capital under his direction have collected a 
great aggregation of people, with all their human needs and as¬ 
pirations, perhaps from the ends of the earth. How then can he 
avoid his responsibility to them to make possible normal, healthy 
living in the new conditions in which they find themselves; and 
his duty to the state to provide an environment suitable for the 
development of American ideals and the cultivation of com¬ 
munity pride and civic responsibility? 


26 o 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Formerly, the employer excused himself for failing to fulfill 
these obligations on the ground that it was impossible to provide 
better housing for immigrants because of their lack of apprecia¬ 
tion of such facilities; or that the expense would be prohibitive. 
But the ancient legend of the “bathtub-filled-with-coal” is now 
seldom heard. Many realize that, on the contrary, immigrants 
can frequently assimilate American standards faster than we 
realize, and that the untidiness in which we find them living is 
more often the result of hopeless despair after a vain struggle 
with the wretched facilities we have provided than the expression 
of a lack of desire for better things. 

Even more thoroughly has the “prohibitive-expense” fallacy 
been exploded, for it is now seen not only that the cost is repaid, 
but that a substantial balance of profit on good housing results 
from decrease of lost time due to illness; improvement of effi¬ 
ciency through increase of contentment; securing of pick of 
labor force; a more stable organization free from disruption by 
casual labor and by the necessity of continually training new 
men; and generally, more satisfactory relations with employees 
and relief from industrial strife. 

Moreover, when maintenance cost and total annual expense 
are taken into consideration, the additional cost of sanitary 
dwellings, above that of unsatisfactory un-American accommoda¬ 
tions, is in itself slight. 

Immigrants in America Review. 2:45-6. July, 1916. 


NATURALIZATION 


AMERICANIZATION DAY 

Frederic C. Howe, Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis 
Island, addressed this letter to the mayors of American cities: 

U. S. Department of Labor 
Immigration Service 

Office of 

Commissioner of Immigration, 

Ellis Island, New York Harbor, N. Y. 

May 22nd, 1915. 

My dear Sir: 

You may be interested in learning of a most significant civic 
demonstration that may be of value to you in connection with 
the Fourth of July celebration in your city. I refer to the “Cit¬ 
izenship Reception,” or “New Voters’ Day” which the cities of 
Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore and Los Angeles have recently 
held as a final step in the naturalization of foreign-born aliens. 

Each year large numbers of aliens are admitted to citizenship. 
The procedure for the most part is informal, and is attended 
with no recognition on the part of the community of its sig¬ 
nificance to America and to the alien. The purpose of the re¬ 
ception is to give dignity to the ceremony and at the same time 
impress its meaning upon all citizens. 

The idea arose in Cleveland in 1914 when the “Sane Fourth 
Committee” assumed the responsibility for a program arranged 
by a committee representing all local patriotic and civic organiza¬ 
tions. Through the clerks of naturalization, the names and ad¬ 
dresses of all aliens admitted to citizenship during the preceding 
year were secured, and invitations for the reception were sent to 
each. At the reception each new citizen on entering the audi¬ 
torium and showing his ticket was presented with a small Amer¬ 
ican flag and also a seal button of the city with the word 
“Citizen” upon it. A platform decorated with the flags of all na¬ 
tions was reserved to seat the new citizens. The audience itself 


262 


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was secured by general publicity through the newspapers, which 
gladly gave publicity to the idea. The program opened with na¬ 
tional airs. This was followed with the unfurling of a large 
American flag, the “Star Spangled Banner” being sung and the 
“Pledge of Allegiance” being recited in unison. Officials repre¬ 
senting the nation, state and city made addresses, followed by a 
speech of appreciation by one of the prominent foreign-born cit¬ 
izens. 

The significance of such receptions given on the Fourth of 
July is obvious. Should they become national in scope, they 
should have great civic value. I am sending you this informa¬ 
tion with the thought that you may desire to appoint a Mayor's 
Committee for the organization of such a reception in your city 
in connection with whatever exercise may be held on the Fourth 
of July. 

There will be a “National Americanization Day Committee,” 
which will furnish information and answer inquiries. I would 
appreciate having from you an expression of your ideas on this 
subject. 

Very respectfully yours, 

(Signed) Frederic C. Howe, 

Commissioner. 


THE MEANING OF CITIZENSHIP 

AN ADDRESS TO NEW CITIZENS 

May 7, 1915 
William B. Wilson 

SECRETARY OF LABOR 

It is now about eight and a half years since the Division of 
Naturalization—now the Bureau of Naturalization—of the Fed¬ 
eral Government was formed. During that time nearly 2,000,000 
aliens have received their naturalization papers. Within the past 
three or four months the Federal and State courts in your city 
have admitted 3,900. I want to take this opportunity of ex¬ 
pressing my appreciation of the efficient manner in which these 
courts have handled the great task which has confronted them. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


263 

I congratulate you who are newly naturalized upon having 
attained the honor of American citizenship. In the course of 
your lifetime greater distinctions may come to you in the various 
activities in which you are engaged, but no greater honor can 
ever be yours than that of being a part ruler of the greatest Re¬ 
public that it has pleased God to establish on earth. It should 
never be forgotten that the man who accepts citizenship in our 
country accepts with it his share of the responsibility for its 
proper direction and control. At this moment, when so many 
other nations are engaged in armed conflict and their passions 
have been stirred to such an extent that an appeal to their judicial 
sense of the rights of others is impossible, the greatest responsi¬ 
bility that rests upon our citizenship, new and old, is to keep a 
cool head and a clear vision. Our passions must not be permitted 
to obscure or dethrone our reason. If we can with honor avoid 
sacrificing our people and our property to the demons of war, 
we shall have performed a great service to humanity and shall 
be in a better position to help bind the wounds of those stricken 
nations when the time comes to urge the claims of peace. 

The Declaration of Independence lays down the fundamental 
principles upon which our Government is formed when it de¬ 
clares : “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men 
are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments 
are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed.” It must be remembered that the 
fathers were dealing not with the question of human capacity 
but with the question of human rights. And no matter how 
weak a man may be mentally, physically, or financially, his rights 
are equal to those of the most powerful of men. 

Our Government is built upon the theory that it derives its 
just power from the consent of the governed, and therein rests 
your great responsibility. It is not enough to acquire a sufficient 
knowledge of our Constitution and forms of civil government to 
satisfy the court of your qualifications for admission into the 
great body of citizenship. That is only the beginning. You 
should not only understand the Constitution in a general way, 
but the purpose for which it was brought into existence; and you 
should aspire to the highest ideals attainable under it. Many of 
you come from countries having no written constitution, nothing 


264 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


in the way of government that interferes with the will of the 
monarch or of the majority in congress immediately becoming 
law. And you may wonder at times why it is that our written 
Constitution makes it impossible for mere majorities of our Con¬ 
gress or legislative bodies to do certain things. Let me tell you 
why by citing the first amendment to the Constitution. It 
declares: 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment _ of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people 
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a re¬ 
dress of grievances. 

In that article is embodied the essence of why the founders 
of our Government laid down some fundamental principles in 
the form of a Constitution that could not be changed by the mere 
will of a majority. There are certain rights that belong to 
minorities. No majority has the right to enforce its will concern¬ 
ing religion upon any man. That is a matter which must rest 
with the individual and his God. No majority has the right to 
abridge the freedom of speech of the minority or of the individual, 
although it has the right to hold him responsible for any abuse of 
that right when exercised by him. And if at any time you are 
prone to chafe because some conditions which you believe to be 
wrong can not be righted as speedily as you would wish because 
the Constitution stands in the way, remember that the same docu¬ 
ment also safeguards in the same way those human rights the ex¬ 
ercise of which has made our country a model for all the earth. 

Within the limits of our constitutions—Federal, State, and 
municipal—is found the opportunity for the development of the 
highest civilization that has ever existed amongst men, not be¬ 
cause of our great economic opportunities, not because the poor¬ 
est may aspire to the acquisition of great wealth, but because we 
have the privilege of working out the relation of man to man on 
the principle of fair play even to the weakest and most insignifi¬ 
cant of our people. That wrongs exist and will continue to exist 
is to be expected in human institutions. It is easy to point out a 
wrong. It is an entirely different matter to discover a workable 
remedy for that wrong. One of the responsibilities that will rest 
upon you as citizens is to discover and put into operation prac¬ 
tical remedies for any wrongs that may exist. In that respect 
the most valuable citizen is the practical idealist. Sentiment has 
been a great factor in human progress. Men will do more for a 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


265 


sentiment than they will for all the wealth of the world. From, 
time immemorial men have been willing to sacrifice their lives 
in support of their ideals. It was not the paltry wages that the 
soldiers received in the Revolutionary War that caused them to 
endure the many years of privation and suffering, the hardships 
in the camp, and the possibility of death upon the field in order 
that a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” 
might be established on earth. It was not the dollars that the 
soldiers of either side were paid during our Civil War that caused 
them to leave their homes and their loved ones and lay down 
their lives, a willing sacrifice to the Stars and Stripes or the 
Bonnie Blue Flag. In each case it was the sentiment behind an 
ideal that spurred them on to the sacrifice. The true patriot, 
the man who loves the country of his adoption, must be willing 
and ready to subordinate himself and his individual interests for 
the general welfare with the same ready devotion in times of 
peace as that which prompts him in times of war. 

Those who have taken the oath of allegiance to the United 
States can have no dual allegiance. Like you, Mr. Mayor, and 
the guests in this audience, I am one of those who were born 
abroad and have sworn allegiance to the United States. I love 
its institutions, I believe in its form of government, I glory in 
what it has achieved in the past and dream of still greater 
achievements for the future. Like everyone here, I love the land 
of my birth, but if I loved it more or as much as I love the land 
of my adoption I should not be here. I would return whence I 
came. I believe you are imbued with the same sentiment. You 
have broken home ties around which have been woven the history 
and traditions of centuries. You have cast your lot with a great 
Republic, in which the voice of the people is supreme. You have 
assumed your share of its responsibilities. You have become a 
part of the United States Government. You have a voice in its 
affairs and also in the affairs of the State and of the city. And 
now, if you exercise that voice properly, if you aspire to the 
highest ideals, if you are moved by the noblest sentiments, if you 
are guided by sound judgment and an honest purpose, you can 
help to make and to keep this country of ours great and still 
greater. And, what is more to be desired even than greatness, 
you can help to make it and keep it the best, the purest, the 
noblest nation on earth. 

From Official Report to the Secretary of Labor. 


a66 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


THE NATURALIZATION RECEPTION, 
PHILADELPHIA, MAY 10, 1915 

Richard K. Campbell 

COMMISSIONER OF NATURALIZATION, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 

OF LABOR 

In the latter part of the year 1914, upon my recommendation, 
the Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization proceeded to Phila¬ 
delphia upon official business, and while there discovered that 
in the office of the clerk of the United States district court there 
were from 5,000 to 6,000 applications of aliens resident within 
the jurisdiction of the court to file petitions for naturalization. 
He at once brought this condition of affairs to the attention of 
the court and proffered the assistance of the bureau to relieve the 
congestion. 

This proffer was immediately accepted by the court, and upon 
presentation to the Secretary of Labor received his hearty in¬ 
dorsement. 

Accordingly, acting under authority of the Secretary of Labor, 
the Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization with a corps of ex¬ 
perienced members of the personnel of the Bureau of Naturaliza¬ 
tion from Washington, in November, 1914, undertook the work 
in the United States district court in Philadelphia, with the re¬ 
sult that 3,940 petitions for naturalization were filed during the 
following seven weeks. 

On December 18, 1914, at a conference called by the judges of 
the United States circuit court of appeals and the United States 
district court, the Deputy Commissioner proposed the holding 
of a public reception by the city of Philadelphia to the candidates 
who should be admitted to citizenship upon the hearing by the 
court of their petitions, which were then being filed by the 
special force under his direction. This proposition, meeting with 
the approval of the judges, was presented to the Secretary of 
Labor and indorsed by him. 

Acting under the authority of the Secretary of Labor the 
Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization presented the project to 
the Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, mayor of the city of Philadel¬ 
phia, who immediately adopted the proposal and arranged 
through the Secretary of Labor for a delegation to wait upon the 
President with an invitation to attend the reception. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


a6 7 


The hearings of the petitions for naturalization were held in 
the United States district court, the Hon. John B. McPherson, 
Judge of the United States circuit court of appeals, presiding 
throughout all of the sessions, which extended in three periods 
from March 22 to and including May 7, 1915. 

On May 10, 1915, in the Municipal Convention Hall in Phila¬ 
delphia, in the presence of the newly naturalized citizens, their 
wives and children who derived citizenship through the naturaliza¬ 
tion of the husbands and fathers—in all representing approx¬ 
imately 8,500 accessions to the citizenship of the country—and 
the invited guests, aggregating an assemblage of approximately 
18,000 impressive ceremonies were conducted. 

These ceremonies consisted of patriotic addresses by the Pres¬ 
ident of the United States; the Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, 
mayor of the city of Philadelphia; the Hon. William B. Wilson, 
Secretary of Labor; and the Hon. Joseph Buffington, dean of the 
United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 
and the singing of national anthems by the assemblage led by a 
trained chorus of approximately 4,000 voices with orchestra ac¬ 
companiment furnished by the police band of the city of Phila¬ 
delphia. These impressive ceremonies were opened with an invo¬ 
cation by the Rev. Henry N. Coudert, Chaplain of the United 
States House of Representatives. The addresses as delivered 
upon the occasion follow herein in the order in which they were 
given in the program. 

This reception was a memorable one and the sentiments ex¬ 
pressed on that occasion will have a far-reaching effect in the 
accomplishment of the highest ideals in the administration of 
the naturalization law throughout the United States, and in 
the attainment of the ends towards which the Bureau of 
Naturalization and the entire judiciary of the United States are 
striving. 

From Official Report to the Secretary of Labor. 


268 


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NATURALIZING THE ALIEN 

Raymond F. Crist 

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER 

BUREAU OF NATURALIZATION, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 
OF LABOR 

It was an innovation in naturalization practice for an officer 
of the government to rise in a naturalization court and object to 
the conferring of citizenship upon an alien who was not qualified 
to assume with any degree of intelligence the responsibilities of 
American citizenship. The voice of the government has been 
raised, however, in objection, through the naturalization exam¬ 
iner, with such effect that over 74,000 applicants have been re¬ 
fused citizen’s papers out of the 594,967 petitions for citizenship 
heard. 

The habits of men are strong, and, notwithstanding the as¬ 
sumption of federal supervision over the naturalization laws, 
many organizations persisted in inducing, for purely selfish rea¬ 
sons, the unsuspecting and accommodating alien to accept the 
title. This influence was exerted almost invariably just preceding 
the holding of an election in any part of the country, and was 
attempted after the government undertook the supervision of the 
naturalization law. 

Notwithstanding this seeming restriction of naturalization, the 
administrative policy has always been to facilitate the admission 
to citizenship in conformity with the legal requirements, of all 
qualified candidates. Conferences were held by the naturaliza¬ 
tion examiners with the naturalization judges and the public 
school authorities and as a direct result evening classes called 
“citizenship classes” were organized in the public schools in vari¬ 
ous parts of the country, and the naturalization courts directed 
the unprepared candidates to attend these classes before their 
petitions would be favorably heard. Public spirited and patriotic 
societies also organized and maintained classes at their own ex¬ 
pense in many parts of the country, notably in Philadelphia, 
Rochester, Buffalo, St. Louis, New Bedford, Mass., Detroit, 
Cleveland, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, Minneapolis and Los 
Angeles. Celebrations were held in furtherance of this great 
work under the inspiration of the schools and of patriotic and 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


269 


civic organizations in Brockton, Mass., Rochester, New Bedford, 
Mass., Cleveland, Chicago, Rock Island, Ill., Los Angeles, Phila¬ 
delphia and many other places. There were celebrations by the 
courts in many places as early as 1907 when addresses on citizen¬ 
ship were delivered by the court, and by others, upon the invita¬ 
tion of the court. In some cities receptions are regularly held to 
the incoming candidates. By far the most important of all these 
receptions to the newly-naturalized citizens, and the one carrying 
a national influence, was the gathering in Philadelphia on May 
10, 1915, at which the President addressed an assembly of over 
19,000 citizens. Within two weeks there was launched a move¬ 
ment for the holding of similar receptions in all of the cities of 
the United States, and “Americanization Day” was proposed. An 
Americanization Day Committee was formed, and celebrations 
were held quite generally throughout the United States on last 
Independence Day. Today, the nation is aroused to the neces¬ 
sity for the Americanization of the entire populace, including 
those born in this land, as well as those born in any other country 
of the globe. 

During 1913 and 1914 plans were formulated which led to a 
survey of the schools by the Bureau of Naturalization. This 
showed that the public school authorities were all most anxious 
to meet the needs of the non-English-speaking foreigner, but 
their equipment was found to be wholly inadequate. In May last, 
the Bureau announced its intention to secure nation-wide co¬ 
operation of the public school system as an aid in inculcating 
doctrines of patriotism in the minds of the candidates for citi¬ 
zenship. Today, this cooperation is a working reality in nearly 
600 cities and towns in forty-three of the States of the Union, 
and embraces almost every community with a foreign population. 
The Bureau has perfected a system of personal contact with the 
entire resident alien body, through the public schools, by which 
not only the candidates for citizenship, but the immigrants as 
well, are being brought into the public schools. It has perfected 
a course of instruction in citizenship, which is in the hands of 
the public school teachers. 

The course is not for the sole purpose of enabling the candi¬ 
date to “answer the questions in court,” nor to cover him with 
a veneer of American citizenship, but it is fundamental in its 
purpose and is based upon the two years which the candidate must 
await after he declares his intention to become a citizen before he 


270 


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may be vested with that state by the court. The first year is 
devoted to the acquisition of a mastery of reading, writing and 
speaking in our tongue. The second year is devoted to a thor¬ 
ough, practical training in citizenship responsibilities. Under 
this course, the mayor of the city, the alderman, or councilmen, 
the heads of the various city departments—police department, the 
health department, the fire department and others, the city and 
national legislators, will come before the assembled student body 
and each tell of the duties of his particular office. After each of 
these officials has appeared, the class is required to discuss, de¬ 
liberate and debate the duties told to them, so as to insure perma¬ 
nently fixing them in their minds. The sanctity of the franchise 
and purity of the ballot are clearly established in their minds. 
They are then required to perform all of the duties of the Amer¬ 
ican citizen, to nominate, electioneer for, and elect a mayor and 
other officials of the city government, to formulate rules to 
govern themselves in the schools, in their places of employment, 
on the streets and in their homes, and rules of sanitation and to 
enforce these rules. The election of a presiding officer will in¬ 
augurate the breaking down of the lines, of national prejudice 
in the student body and lay the basis for their unification and 
Americanization. 

To bring the candidates for citizenship to the schools, the 
Bureau sends letters to them and their wives, inviting them to 
attend the schools, and points out the material advantages which 
will accrue to them. 

The native-born American needs to feel the leavening influ¬ 
ence of Americanization as surely as the alien uninformed of our 
institutions needs to have his capacity developed to enable him 
to understand them and choose whether he will accept and dedi¬ 
cate his life to them, or continue his allegiance to the sovereign 
of his nativity. Neither native nor foreign-born residents can be 
forced to feel the love of country. The lack of a sense of devo¬ 
tion to country is chargeable solely to ignorance where those in¬ 
stitutions are for the universal and individual wellbeing. If any¬ 
one is to pin his faith to our governmental institutions and con¬ 
tinue loyal to them, he must clearly know what they are. A large 
body of educators believe that the only means by which our in¬ 
stitutions of government can be taught to the non-English-speak¬ 
ing residents is through the agency of their compatriot who 
speaks their foreign tongue. That they are wrong will be dis- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


271 


covered by a survey of the public schools such as has been made 
by the writer. The American school teacher can transform the 
individual into a faithful, loyal and devoted American by the 
scores while the “educators” may be searching for the foreign- 
born linguist who is qualified to teach American patriotism. The 
linguistic qualification is more than apt to perpetuate the national 
groupings of foreign-born citizens than to effect their American¬ 
ization. 

Nation’s Business. 4:No. 2, part 1, 16-17. February, 1916. 


AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

ADDRESS, MAY 10, I915 

Joseph Buffington 

JUDGE, UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, THIRD DISTRICT 

During the past twenty-odd years it has been part of my 
judicial duty to sign the judicial decrees giving to thousands of 
men of foreign birth the boon of American citizenship. It is a 
work that has deeply interested me. I have mingled with these 
men, and by knowing them have learned to know their worth 
And this knowledge warrants me to-night, Mr. President, when 
you have come to dignify the admission of 4,000 of these to citi¬ 
zenship, in saying they are worthy of your coming, for has it not 
been well said: 

But there is neither east nor west, 

Border nor breed nor birth, 

When two strong men stand face to face, 

Tho’ they come from the ends of the earth! 

Now, if you should chance some evening, Mr. Mayor, when 
sitting in your library to take from your shelves Watson’s Annals 
—that time-worn volume dear to the Philadelphia heart—you 
may read how, in 1679, three years before Penn came to found 
our goodly Province, a few English emigrants preceded him and 
landed 12 miles below where we meet to-night, at what was then 
Swedish Upland but is now the city of Chester. These English 
pioneers of Pennsylvania colonization found the west bank of the 
Delaware already held by Swedes and Hollanders. It is well, 
therefore, Mr. Mayor, for those of us of American birth, of 
English speech, and Pennsylvania heritage, to remember that it 
was men and women of alien tongue and race that stood on the 


272 


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west shore of the Delaware and welcomed our English forbears 
to Pennsylvania soil. And so it has come about, sir, that when 
these foreign-born men of the twentieth century come before the 
court for the fellowship of American citizenship, I am led to 
recall that when in that same year there was born to one of that 
English-speaking pioneer emigrant band a little son it was the 
foreign speech of Swedish and Holland women that welcomed 
the little Richard Buffington to his Pennsylvania heritage as the 
first-born child of English descent in the Province of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 

Three years later, when William Penn aboard the good ship 
Welcome sailed up the Delaware, he found the same alien-speech 
welcome awaiting him. He recognized the right of these Swed¬ 
ish and Holland folk to stay and share in the new colony, and 
recognized what was then new on American soil, namely, the 
right of other races besides his own to come thereafter. For 
Penn was the pioneer in that varied race colonization that made 
Pennsylvania from the start the great race-blending colony, that 
gave her a race catholicity different from all of her sister colo¬ 
nies. As you recall the story of the other 12 colonies they were 
each founded on one race and one religion. But with Penn came 
the dawning of that new spirit of race and religious catholicity 
which is the real basis of true Americanism. And I venture to 
here say that when the true story of colonial founders shall be 
written over and above all colonial founders in breadth of vision, 
in toleration, in race and religious catholicity will tower William 
Penn. For, mark you, he founded his colony not for the advan¬ 
tage of his own race or those of his own faith, but that in Penn’s 
land every race and every faith might equally share in liberty, 
life, and the pursuit of happiness. And in that Province—where 
the Declaration, the Constitution, and the flag were later born— 
the real germ of genuine Americanism, namely, a self-govern¬ 
ment, based on governing self so as to insure the rights of others 
as well as their own, was born. Thus it came about, that with 
the peopling of Pennsylvania began a varied race trekking that 
marked no other colony. For 200 years this composite race 
intermingling has gone on, and to-day 22 per cent of all for¬ 
eigners coming to the United States make Pennsylvania their 
home. The foreign problem is no new question for Pennsylvania. 
It is as old as our Commonwealth. We are not affrighted by it. 
We know that three-fourths of these emigrants were farm born; 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


273 


that they go to congested cities not because the}' want to but be¬ 
cause they have to; and we know that farm-bred men can in the 
long run be intrusted with upholding the stability of a nation. 
It is fitting, therefore, that the inauguration of this great patri¬ 
otic foreign-welcoming movement, honored for the first time 
by the coming of a President, should take place on Pennsylvania 
soil and in a great city whose proof of its friendly regard for 
the foreign born is that you, Mr. Mayor, and two of its former 
mayors came to Philadelphia as immigrant boys. 

At risk, sir, of trespassing on the wishes of this great audi¬ 
ence, eager to hear the President, let me say a few words of 
brotherly counsel to these men whose departing alien past to¬ 
night merges into a new born American future. 

And the first thought I give them as to the foundation of their 
new citizenship is that over and above all other American citizen¬ 
ship their American citizenship is based on law. And by that I 
mean this: If you look at the Declaration of Independence, you 
will find that the seventh ground in order on which we based 
our right to rebel against King George of England was because 
“He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; 
for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization for for¬ 
eigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 
hither,” etc. If you will look at the Constitution, you will find it 
gave Congress the power “To establish an uniform rule of nat¬ 
uralization.” 

In pursuance of these rights and provisions their American 
citizenship is granted to the foreign born by law, it is evidenced 
by a decree made by court of law, and is recorded for them in 
the records kept by the law. And so it comes about that the 
foreign-born man’s citizenship is what I may call a law right as 
distinguished from that, for example, of the President, whose 
citizenship is one of birth right. Now, I venture to say that even 
if our President were called upon to prove his birthright as an 
American citizen he would have some trouble to do so. He has 
not at hand the incontestable proof of a law decree which once 
and for all time adjudged you foreign-born men to be lawful 
citizens; he can not turn to any recorded decree which settles 
and evidences his citizenship. Such being the case, the foreign- 
born citizen, being made a citizen under and by the law, it seems 
to me that you, as law-made Americans, have, if anything, an 
even higher duty than we who are native born, to respect, to sup- 


274 


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port, to uphold the law which conferred citizenship upon you. 
The law is the ladder by which you have mounted to citizenship. 
If, therefore, at any time questions arise as to what your course 
should be, where your influence should be cast, in what way you 
should lead and influence your fellow countrymen, I want you 
to bear in mind that your citizenship is based on law, your coun¬ 
try on order, and that unless law and order stand American 
citizenship can not stand; for American citizenship depends on 
every American citizen standing for law and order. 

Now, the good mayor has spoken to-night most feelingly of 
how you all, just as he, have loved your several fatherlands, and 
most patriotically of how he and you have renounced for all time 
his and your allegiance to the birth land of the past and taken a 
solemn oath that henceforth your allegiance was on this, not on 
the other side of the sea. But I want to go further and say that 
oath goes further. It binds you to support and defend the coun¬ 
try’s Constitution and laws against all enemies, foreign and do¬ 
mestic. Now we all know what foreign enemies of our country 
might be—though God grant that with charity for all and malice 
toward none we may deserve and have none—but I beg of you 
to remember that our country may have domestic enemies—ene¬ 
mies within our own country, enemies in her own citizenship— 
against whom she demands that you should protect her, her Con¬ 
stitution, and her laws. Who are these domestic enemies ? How 
shall they be known? Fellow Americans, you can depend on this, 
that any man, or any organization, or any publication, or any 
interest, or any influence that attempts to undermine your loyal, 
whole-hearted citizenship; that encourages you to break and dis¬ 
obey her laws; that would change the citizenship of law and 
order for one of anarchy and disorder, to one of hate and vio¬ 
lence ; Jthat would lead you to believe that American citizenship 
can be a race citizenship, or a religious citizenship, or a class 
citizenship, or a rich citizenship, or a poor citizenship, or indeed 
that there is any other kind of American citizenship than the 
genuine old-fashioned American citizenship that sees but one flag, 
knows but one people, and feels that every other man has the 
very same equal right to his life, to his liberty, and to his pursuit 
of happiness that we demand for ourselves. The citizenship that 
demands more for myself than I am willing to grant to my fel¬ 
low citizen is not American citizenship; it is a domestic enemy 
against which our country would have us guard ourselves as truly 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


275 


as against a foreign one. And you can depend upon it that any¬ 
one, or any influence, tending to make your citizenship an un¬ 
happy one by poisoning your mind with envy, ill will, bitterness 
against your country, against her institutions, her laws, or 
against any portion or class or mass of her citizens and your 
fellow citizens, is an enemy not only of yours, but of your coun¬ 
try. For this country, as its foundations testify, was created that 
each citizen might be aided by his fellows, and he aid his fellows, 
in the pursuit of happiness. 

I beg of you, therefore, to yourselves learn and teach your 
children the spirit of building up, not of tearing down, your 
country, its citizens, and its citizenship. This Nation was built 
by building up; it was not built by tearing down. Our flag was 
made by sewing its stripes together, not by tearing them apart; 
by sewings stars on, not by ripping them off its field of blue. 
And that flag waves to lead us on so long only as willing hands 
hold it up. And it is in this helpful spirit—helpful to home, to 
school, to church, to neighbors, to country—you should start out 
to claim a helpful, hopeful, and happy American citizenship for 
yourselves. For, added to law and order, I want you to remem¬ 
ber that on those great factors the home, the school, the church, 
the future of our country bottoms. These are the things that 
have made America the country to which you wanted to come, 
and it is your duty to help in upholding them. Make every effort 
to keep your children in the schools. Stand by the school¬ 
teacher. Teach your child to honor and respect the teacher, for 
you can no more afford to undermine the teacher in your child’s 
eyes than you would stand for the teacher undermining the 
parent in the child’s regard. And just now I want to say that, 
in my judgment, there is no more patriotic, far-reaching work 
being done in our country to-day than in the Americanization of 
our foreign-born children through the quiet, faithful, day-in-and- 
day-out work of our school-teachers. The school is America’s 
method of reaching the foreign-born adult through his Amer¬ 
ican-taught child. I know whereof I speak in that regard. The 8 
or 10 year old child of the incoming foreigner becomes in a 
couple of months, through the school-teacher, the dominant 
factor in the foreign home. Through its rapid gaining of Eng¬ 
lish that child becomes the sole means of communication for that 
family with the outside world, and through that child to the 
measure that American patriotism, American institutions, Amer- 


276 


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ican justice, and American life are embodied in that teacher, are 
they carried into that home. And no one who visits on patri¬ 
otic holiday our schools in neighborhoods where the foreign-bom 
children predominate can feel aught but a deep assurance of the 
safety of our country’s future when he sees the outward and 
visible signs of an inward and spiritual patriotism the American 
school-teacher is implanting in these foreign-born children, eager 
to become American in every way, to salute and revere its flag, 
to learn its history and the story of its great founders and patri¬ 
ots. Let the theorist who does not know the foreign born, but 
who bewails the evils of foreign immigration, ask the school¬ 
teacher about the problem. His eyes will be opened. The truth 
is we Americans have not gotten into touch in our citizenship, in 
our churches, in any practical way with the foreign born. Apart 
from the school-teacher for the foreign-born child, we as native- 
born Americans have largely relegated intercourse with the for¬ 
eign born to the saloon keeper, the padrone, the foreign-born 
anarchist, and the native-born demagogue. 

As an earnest that we native-born Americans are in the future 
to be more in sympathy with our foreign-born fellow Americans 
I take it, Mr. President, that the example you have set by coming 
here to-night will set many a thoughtless American to thinking 
it is high time he too should get to know some foreign-born 
fellow citizens. I have spoken of the school; let me add a word 
as to the church. This Nation is a God-respecting and God- 
worshiping Nation. If the church, if religion, were taken away, 
this Nation could not stand. Stand for them, therefore, and for 
all that tends to the upholding of the home and its influence. 
Statistics show a wonderfully wide owning of their own homes 
by the foreign born. From figures kept by the late clerk of our 
Federal court at Pittsburg I was surprised to find how many 
foreign men had bought homes, how many had money in savings 
banks. Remember the worth of what you earn is measured by 
what you save, and here let me add that you will find that as a 
savings bank your wife can beat a saloon keeper. And this leads 
me to say a closing word about the foreign-born woman, your 
wife, your sister, your mother. You go out among your fellow 
men and you get more or less in touch with American life; your 
women stay at home and are almost wholly out of touch with 
American life and out of touch with American sisterhood. Until 
American women wake up to this fact and get into sympathetic 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


2 77 


touch through church, patriotic society, settlement and social 
work, and the like with your women, it seems to me that it fs 
your duty to do everything in your power for your own women. 
American men believe in good women. There is no country 
where women are as highly regarded as here in America. The real 
woman, the womanly woman, the mother, the wife, the sister, 
the daughter, has the highest and best place in the American 
man’s regard, and we want that you in your attitude toward wo¬ 
men should get that true American ideal that a good woman is 
not your inferior, is not your equal, but is something far above 
you men, as every man knows whose life, character, and family 
have been molded by the priceless blessing of a good mother, a 
loyal sister, a true wife. 

And now a closing thought on the final measure of your citi¬ 
zenship. The genius of our country is self-government. But 
self-government does not mean selfish government. In the final 
analysis it means government of self, so that my fellow citizen 
shall have his rights as well as I. Where each man by governing 
himself insures equal rights to his fellow men, there and there 
alone we have the fulfillment to its depth of those immortal but 
often misunderstood words, “A government of the people, by 
the people, for the people.” 

Proceedings; Naturalisation Reception. Government Printing Office, 

191S. 


THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON 
IMMIGRATION AND AMERICANIZATION 

The first National Conference on Immigration and American¬ 
ization was held in Philadelphia, in January. It was organized 
by the National Americanization Committee, in order to call to¬ 
gether organizations doing practical work among immigrants and 
all agencies in the country interested in the assimilation of immi¬ 
grants into American social, industrial and civic life. * * * 

The Conference was held in Philadelphia, on Wednesday and 
Thursday, January 19 and 20, 1917. The first session consisted 
of the opening of an art exhibit at Memorial Hall showing the 
contribution of foreign-born races to art in America. 

At a dinner on January 19, addresses were made by Mr. 
Frank Trumbull, Chairman of the National Americanization 
Committee; Governor Brumbaugh, S. Stanwood Menken, Felix 
M. Warburg and Mary Antin. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


278 


John Price Jackson, Commissioner of Labor of Pennsylvania, 
spoke briefly of the need of Americanization work in the indus¬ 
trial communities of Pennsylvania, and H. H. Wheaton of the 
Federal Bureau of Education in a talk accompanied by slides, 
showed the number of foreign-born in Pennsylvania, the num¬ 
ber of foreign-born illiterates, the small percentage of the non- 
English-speaking that attend night school, and the comparatively 
small percentage of the foreign-born men of voting age who are 
naturalized. 

On Thursday, January 20, there were four sessions of the 
Conference all of which were open to the public. The morning 
and afternoon sessions were held in the ballroom of the Belle- 
vue-Stratford and were each attended by about 1,300 persons. 

There were 411 official delegates in attendance at the Confer¬ 
ence representing commercial, economic, civic, religious, educa¬ 
tional racial, industrial and patriotic societies, and Federal and 
state and city departments. 

The morning session, at which Judge Goodwin, of Chicago, 
presided, was taken up chiefly by reports of various organiza¬ 
tions and in the discussion of methods and objects in the prac¬ 
tical work of educating immigrants in the English language, 
citizenship and American standards of living. After an address 
by H. H. Wheaton on the scope of Americanization work, five- 
minute speeches were given by representatives of different or¬ 
ganizations. These speakers included. Albert Shiels, of the De¬ 
partment of Education, New York City, on “The Public School 
and the Immigrant”; Robert Bliss, of the American Library 
Commission, “The Public Library and the Immigrant”; Peter 
Roberts, of the International Committee, Y. M. C. A., on “The 
Immigration Work of the Y. M. C. A.”; Carter D. Keene, Di¬ 
rector of the Division of Postal Savings, Post-Office Depart¬ 
ment; Dr. Jane E. Robbins, of the Jacob Riis Settlement, New 
York City, who urged the wives and sisters of employers to see 
that immigrant workmen received fair wages; Louis Bremer, 
National Council, Y. M. H. A.; Dr. Sidney L. Gulick, of the 
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America; Mrs. 
Marian K. Clark, of the Bureau of Industries and Immigration, 
New York State; Bernard J. Rothwell, of the Massachusetts 
Commission of Immigration; Dante Barton, who represented 
Frank P. Walsh, of the Committee on Industrial Relations, and 
others. Mr. Barton read a letter from Mr. Walsh to the Com- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


279 


mittee, attacking the sincerity of the Americanization movement, 
and claiming that it was directed only toward the perpetuation of 
the present economic system, because the Committee was not 
working through labor unions and urging immigrants to join 
such unions. 

At the luncheon of delegates, at which Miss Kellor presided, 
addresses were made by Commissioner Jackson, Mr. John Fahey, 
President of the United States Chamber of Commerce; Mrs. 
Bremer, of the National Young Women’s Christian Association, 
and Mrs. Simkovitch, of Greenwich House. 

The afternoon session was addressed by various immigration 
experts and economists on general immigration subjects. Louis 
F. Post, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor, who 
discussed the part which the Department of Labor could take in 
the work of Americanization, presided at the meeting. The 
speakers included Dr. P. P. Claxton, Federal Commissioner of 
Education, who spoke on “A National Policy of Immigrant Ed¬ 
ucation”; Dr. Woods Hutchinson, on “The Immigrant and Pub¬ 
lic Health”; Mrs. Percy Pennypacker, President of the General 
Federation of Women’s Clubs, on “The Americanization of 
Women”; John H. Fahey, President of the Chamber of Com¬ 
merce of the United States, on “The National Chamber of Com¬ 
merce and Americanization”; Prof. Edmund von Mach, on 
“Atoms or Creators”; Father Wastl, on “The Co-operation of 
the Catholic Church in Americanization Work”; Grace Abbott, 
of the Immigrants’ Protective League, Chicago, on “The Best 
Methods of Co-operation in Americanization Work,” and Mary 
Antin on “Americanization as a Mutual Process.” 

The most significant results of the Conference are that for 
the first time philanthropic business, civic and educational organ¬ 
izations were brought together to discuss Americanization as it 
affects them all; that Americanization was recognized as a na¬ 
tional movement and responded, requiring national standards; 
and that one and all, organizations governmental and private, of 
all kinds and all creeds, and of varying methods of work, pledged 
themselves to co-operate in carrying out Americanization as a 
national work. 

Immigrants in America Review. 2:38-46. April, 1916. 


2 &) 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


THE SONG OF THE FOREIGN-BORN 

Denis A. McCarthy 

O land of all lands first and best 
We pledge our love for thee. 

Whate’er the faith our sires confessed, 
Whate’er our blood may be; 

Whate’er the shrine at which we bow, 
To-day, dear land, we blend 
Our hearts and voices in the vow 
To love thee to the end. 

O land of all lands first and best, 

Wide open hast thou flung 
The gates to greet men sore oppressed 
Of every race and tongue. 

And surely they who know thy hand 
And all the gifts it bears 
Will never flout the gen’rous land 
That shelters them and theirs. 

O land of all lands first and best,, 

Come peace or conflict dread, 

Thy sons will bravely bear the test, 
Wherever born or bred. 

Old racial cries, old racial ties, 

For them will cease to be, 

And, over all, the thought will rise 
Of thee and only thee! 

From Heart Songs and Home Songs, pp. 12-13. Boston. 

Brown & Company. 1916. 


Little, 


LIVING CONDITIONS 


AMERICANIZING BARREN ISLAND 

Joseph Mayper 

An immigrant family occupying five rooms keeps eighteen 
boarders—and more or less boarders are kept by every family in 
the community. Garbage reduction plants provide employment, 
and, working in day and night shifts, the boarders are compelled, 
on account of the congested quarters, to occupy the same beds 
day and night. In the interior of the houses dirt and filth are 
the rule and windows are nailed down. Hardworking men and 
women, finding no wholesome form of recreation, indulge in 
drink to while the idle hours away. The resulting drunken 
brawls and racial squabbles draw the attention of listening chil¬ 
dren and the vile language they hear is soon effectively used in 
their own innocent quarrels. The foul odors of the garbage 
plants, the enervating physical labor, the constant indulgence in 
alcohol, the unventilated and congested sleeping quarters and the 
total lack of bathing facilities are reflected in the sickly pallor on 
the faces of the men, women and children. 

Births are plentiful in this immigrant community, but mothers 
do not know how to care for infants under the new climatic con¬ 
ditions and are careless in the preparation and modification of 
foods. An increased infant mortality is therefore reported. In¬ 
dustrial accidents are of frequent occurrence here, but with no 
local hospital or dispensary and no resident physician, medical 
treatment is delayed—sometimes with fatal results. Women and 
children spend every spare moment on the “dump,” and the 
feverish search for “treasure” is responsible for diseased bodies, 
dirty homes, neglected children, illiteracy and drunkenness. 

The houses, badly in need of repair, are built on a filled-in 
creek, have damp cellars and are dimly lighted by kerosene oil 
lamps. Rickety fences made of old doors, tin sheets and dis¬ 
carded bed springs enclose each house and yard. Garbage and 
refuse are strewn about and dirty pools of water stagnate in the 
yards and alleys which are literally covered with tumble-down 
wood sheds, chicken coops and dog kennels. The insanitary open 


362 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


privy vaults are dirty and foul and are seldom cleaned. The 
water supply is inadequate for either domestic or fire fighting 
uses. The food offered for sale in the little supply stores is ex¬ 
posed to disease-carrying flies. 

The depressing effect of the gray, cheerless environment is 
reflected in all the community relationships. Over ninety per 
cent of the adults are unable to speak English, and very few of 
those eligible have applied for citizenship—yet many of them 
have been here for a number of years. Indifference to religious 
influences is marked, and the church, attended irregularly, re¬ 
mains gloomy and unattractive. Surplus earnings are either sent 
abroad or are hoarded in little tin boxes lying in the bottoms of 
trunks. Except for the public school, the only local Americaniz¬ 
ing agency, the community remains an isolated group of men, 
women and children, lacking definite aim or purpose. 

Such were the conditions as they existed a year ago in a 
typical industrial immigrant community in the City of New 
York. Barren Island, in Jamaica Bay, is the receiving station 
for the city’s garbage and dead animals. Some 1,200 foreigners 
—men, women and children—have been attracted to the Island, 
the adult males finding employment in the reduction and fertilizer 
plants. The conditions described, however, are more or less 
typical of many industrial communities throughout the country. 
Legislation and the enforcement of general statutes have been 
found insufficient measures to remedy these conditions or to en¬ 
force an American standard of living in such communities. Such 
desolate and socially isolated communities can become American¬ 
ized when the individuals concerned have been educated to appre¬ 
ciate the necessity for cleanliness, sanitation, sobriety, morality 
and literacy. When the women’s work is never done, home life 
is destroyed, standards are lowered, Americanization is retarded, 
and the children’s standards of citizenship are low. Where green 
things are seldom visible, where little streams of dirty water are 
allowed to stagnate, where tin cans, fruit skins and other refuse 
lie about the houses and where sickness and disease increase mor¬ 
tality—vigorous yet sympathetic action must be taken if life in 
America is to continue to be of a high standard. 

With this in mind a definite, constructive plan of work for in¬ 
tensive and personal work in the homes of the immigrant resi¬ 
dents of Barren Island was outlined, and the cooperation of the 
New York City Department of Health secured. On August 6 , 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


383 

1915, the department temporarily released one of its trained 
nurses for the experiment, a building was rented and an assistant 
was secured. The plan provided for the establishment of a milk 
station as a health laboratory, home visiting to promote higher 
standards of living, stimulating interest in education and citizen¬ 
ship and providing adequate recreational facilities. The milk sta¬ 
tion was equipped with a sanitary ice-box, demonstration tables, 
infant scales and bath tubs, a first aid kit, standard medicines for 
infants’ diseases,* charts, folding chairs, pamphlets on diet, feed¬ 
ing and parental care and other essentials. When connected by 
sliding doors with an adjacent room this laboratory became avail¬ 
able as a lecture hall for health demonstrations, discussions and 
meetings. A small office was fitted up with a desk and a few 
chairs for private consultations. On an upper floor one room 
was used as an infirmary for serious cases of illness requiring 
the nurse’s constant attention, while an adjoining room was used 
as the nurse’s personal quarters. An attractive sign calling the 
attention of the residents to the fact that services were rendered 
free of charge at this health and social center was placed in the 
window. Record and individual case cards of the Health De¬ 
partment were secured for the station. The station was kept 
open all hours of the day, although the nurse was away after¬ 
noons visiting homes and engaging in personal work. 

The improvement of Barren Island in sanitation, education, 
beauty and other conditions which could in any way conduce to 
the health, morality, happiness and general good citizenship of its 
residents was sought. As the interest and cooperation of the 
mothers and fathers was largely dependent on any personal ser¬ 
vice rendered to their children, it was determined to approach 
the work by a direct appeal to the latter. The work for the social 
and health rehabilitation of the community was therefore organ¬ 
ized into four general divisions—health, sanitation, education and 
naturalization, and recreation, detailed as follows: 

(1) Health —(a) At station: pure milk and ice—for infants, 
anaemic children, and sick adults; first aid to the injured—in co¬ 
operation with a visiting doctor; illustrated health talks—care of 
babies, prenatal care, swat-the-fly campaign. ( b) Home visiting; 
interior conditions—cleanliness, ventilation, personal hygiene, 
pure food, congestion (boarders) and children on dumps, (c) 
General: pure water supply and pipe line connections—for drink¬ 
ing and fire protection; pure food—through law enforcement. 


284 


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(2) Sanitation —(a) Garbage: covered cans in rear of every 
house and arrangements for disposal regularly. ( b ) Refuse: tin 
cans and other refuse in streets, yards and alleys gathered and 
collected in heaps and arrangements for disposal, (c) Drainage: 
hollows and holes filled in with slag, with cooperation of plants; 
water drains covered. ( d ) Toilets; cleaned, screened and re¬ 
paired ; movable metal receptacles placed under seats. 

(3) Education and Naturalization —(a) Classes: in English 
and citizenship in public schools; attendance of men and women 
solicited personally and by notices in pay envelopes and posters. 

( b ) Reading room and library; newspapers, magazines and books 
in English and in the important foreign languages at the milk 
station or public school, (c) Lectures and public meetings: on 
health, civic, patriotic and educational themes of local interest— 
moving pictures, (d) Sewing class: practical aid to girls and 
mothers. ( e ) Mothers’ Club: domestic science, care of self and 
home. (/) Prize essays: on miscellaneous community needs and 
remedies. 

(4) Recreation — (a) Playground: baseball field on vacant 
lot, cleaned and graded by children with cooperation of plants; 
sand pile and wading pool near school. ( b ) Outdoor games; 
pageants, group and folk dancing. ( c ) Dancing: in school gym¬ 
nasium or hall for adults. ( d ) Home gardens: in front of houses 
—vines, flowers; in yards—vegetable and truck gardening; in 
window boxes—flowers. (Children provided with seeds without 
cost, and prizes offered for best and most artistic results.) (e) 
Outings and celebrations: to develop closer community spirit. 

(5) Miscellaneous — (a) Exploitation: hearing complaints 
and making adjustments. ( b ) Domestic relations: adjusting fam¬ 
ily disputes and providing for the care of neglected children. ( c ) 
General: advice and information. 

The residents were informed of the plan and purpose of the 
work at an Americanization celebration which was made the oc¬ 
casion for talks on clean living, the importance of learning the 
English language and the opportunities and obligations of Amer¬ 
ican citizenship. The hot summer and infants’ diseases soon 
brought the mothers to the station to secure properly iced Grade 
“A” milk at cost price—a welcome substitute for the condensed 
or “turned” milk on which babies had previously been fed. Some 
250 quarts of fresh milk were sold weekly thereafter for babies, 
expectant and nursing mothers and for the adult sick. Every 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


285 


child under two years of age brought to the station was weighed 
and examined by the nurse, who in nearly every case rendered 
some trifling service, instructed the mother in the preparation 
and modification of feedings and gave practical demonstration on 
how to bathe, feed and dress the baby. 

As the work progressed, many children were found suffering 
from malnutrition or from such diseases as diarrhoea, constipa¬ 
tion, sprue, tonsilitis, milk rash, burns, ring worm and eczema. 
An infant’s diet frequently included such indigestible foods as 
cucumbers, watermelons, sour milk, cabbage, condensed milk, fish 
or tomato soup, while beer and vodka were occasionally served to 
quench its thrist. With some mothers the use of milk after 
weaning is unknown, and when advised to feed the child under 
two years of age chiefly on milk, broad hints were made that the 
sale of milk was being promoted. With the coming of cold 
weather in the early fall, babies were seldom taken out of doors 
and windows were nailed down, but most of the houses were of 
such flimsy construction that the many air holes provided some of 
the fresh air needed! A typical case of neglect was that of a 
two-months-old infant who came under the nurse’s care with its 
mouth cavity and tongue covered with sprue. Although covered 
with dirt, the child frequently went without a bath. One hot 
evening the nurse found the baby in a room with windows closed, 
lying in a cot between two feather pillows and with about two 
pounds of sliced onions tied to its stomach, the palms of its hands 
and the soles of its feet. The baby was being fed on tea with 
plenty of sugar and was crying pitifully. One emaciated infant, 
in another instance, had been suffering from diarrhoea and, 
despite the doctor’s orders, had been fed on greasy chicken broth. 
The day she died another child was born to the distracted 
mother. A decidedly threatening attitude had to be assumed by 
the nurse in several cases to convince the mothers of their folly. 

The health work has not, however, been limited to the care of 
sick babies. Adults have received first-aid in minor accidents 
and simple treatment for diseased eyes and hands and intestinal 
disorders, while persons suffering from serious diseases were re¬ 
ferred to a doctor who visits the Island daily for a few hours, 
and tubercular cases were sent to public institutions. Other 
adults were given advice and treatment, sometimes under a doc¬ 
tor’s direction, for pleurisy, grippe, pneumonia diseased eyes and 
for injuries received in drunken brawls or in accidents. 


286 


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The educational value of the nurse’s graphic demonstrations 
of treatment in the homes cannot be overestimated. A mother, 
in one instance, was suffering acutely from a rectal obstruction. 
When the nurse arrived she found her lying in a filthy bed with¬ 
out bed sheets or bed clothing. The windows were closed, the 
air was foul and the floor was filthy. The patient was so “sick” 
that six of her neighbors (women) had also been called in. Im¬ 
potent without direction, they had been standing about with 
folded arms awaiting the arrival of the nurse. Taking the situa¬ 
tion in at a glance, the latter put all six women to work, one 
opening the window, another mopping up the floor, the third 
bringing in a clean nightgown the fourth getting some warm 
water, the fifth fitting up another bed with clean linen, etc. The 
patient, after ordinary treatment, was then removed to the clean 
bed and the room was thoroughly aired. 

Great difficulty was experienced in this health work in over¬ 
coming the superstitions of ignorant mothers. One baby had 
been cured of spru and diarrhoea and the mother was asked to 
bring the child to the station to be weighed at regular intervals, 
but weighing babies was “bad luck,” and any gain in weight 
meant fattening for death and the mother refused to come. But 
when through filth and dirt another case of sprue was later 
brought on, the mother promptly reappeared at the station! The 
mother of another child suffering from pneumonia insisted she 
could cure her baby by covering her with a black shawl. Another 
woman lapsed her insurance policy, claiming she had been sick 
since it had been issued. One old woman known as the “witch” 
was frequently called in to mumble incoherent phrases and make 
mysterious motions over the bodies of the sick persons—and she 
was credited with the cure! 

The health work carried on in this manner gave the nurse an 
easy entree to tfie homes. Daily visits were made, averaging 
about seventy-five a week, and every opportunity was taken to 
instruct mothers in matters of cleanliness, ventilation, personal 
hygiene, sanitation of the home and grounds, pure food, conges¬ 
tion, etc. The general appearance of the homes has changed so 
completely as a result of these visits, it is difficult to realize that 
not very long ago windows had been nailed down, beds and bed¬ 
ding had been filthy, food had been exposed to flies and members 
of the family had been carelessly dressed. Even congestion, a 
serious evil in homes where boarders are kept, has been consid- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


a8; 


erably reduced through this slow, patient educational work. 

The nurse has become a friend of the family and many per¬ 
sonal and domestic difficulties are now referred to her for ad¬ 
justment. Constant quarreling between a mother and her four- 
teen-year-old daughter caused the latter to run away from home. 
The nurse was appealed to and she located the girl in Brooklyn 
and arranged that she be cared for by an uncle. One poor hus¬ 
band complained that his wife was frequently intoxicated, neg¬ 
lected her home and children, and seldom had his supper ready 
when he returned after thirteen hours of work. At his request 
the nurse called frequently at the home and the husband is now 
congratulating himself at his happy thought—the wife has given 
up drinking and has supper ready in time! These cases fre¬ 
quently required the services of other agencies and they were 
referred, after investigation, to the Children’s Aid Society, Bu¬ 
reau of Charities, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chil¬ 
dren, hospitals, etc. With the many demands made on her 
services, the nurse has found it necessary to visit homes at all 
hours of the day and night. Her knowledge of the important 
languages, Polish and Slovak, has been of special value and has 
enabled her to interest herself in the residents and extend many 
personal services. 

The sanitary conditions in the community were so bad that 
special efforts to improve them were made. Vigorous food in¬ 
spections were undertaken with the cooperation of the authori¬ 
ties and quantities of fruits, vegetables, butter, meat, fish and 
milk were condemned and destroyed. This was always followed 
with the necessary educational work, and shopkeepers now keep 
their meats, bread and other foodstuffs in glass showcases. One 
of them became so enthusiastic that he established a model 
grocery and meat shop, while another, the owner of the filthiest 
shop in the district, renovated' it completely. A house-to-house 
educational campaign was waged to induce the householders to 
purchase covered garbage cans in which to deposit their garbage 
and kitchen refuse which had previously been thrown into yards, 
alleys and streets. Shopkeepers were approached and agreed to 
cooperate by offering for sale only covered cans. The coopera¬ 
tion of the Street Cleaning Department was then secured and ar¬ 
rangements were finally made for the collection of garbage three 
times a week. This was followed recently by a vigorous “clean¬ 
up” campaign, as a result of which about 300 truck-loads of refuse 


288 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


were collected in heaps by the residents, who now take pride in 
keeping their grounds clean. Other improvements secured in¬ 
clude the installation of galvanized iron receptacles under the 
seats of the old-fashioned outhouses, which can be taken out and 
cleaned through newly constructed rear trap doors, the construc¬ 
tion of inexpensive home-made flytraps which has considerably 
reduced the need of a “swat-the-fly” campaign, and the screening 
of windows and doors in the early spring to keep out the mos¬ 
quitoes and flies. 

Although improvement in the health and sanitary conditions 
established higher standards of living, it did not serve to give the 
residents any closer relationship with our national life or a more 
intelligent understanding of our national ideals. The house-to- 
house work was therefore utilized to arouse among the adults 
interest in a knowledge of the English language and preparation 
for American citizenship. Men and women were urged to attend 
the public evening school, addresses were made before foreign 
societies, colored posters were put up in various sections of the 
district, announcements were made by the priest and the coopera¬ 
tion of the employers was secured. Decided interest was ex¬ 
pressed and a class in preparation for citizenship was organized 
in the evening school to meet the demand. The attendance was 
increased, but the changing shifts in the plants hampered regu¬ 
larity. Plans are now being formulated to provide instruction 
for the changing shifts inside the plants. Talks on health and 
personal hygiene were given to the children with the cooperation 
of the school authorities, and mothers were urged to come to the 
station for simple instruction in English. A branch office of the 
Traveler’s Library was organized at the station and about 250 
books in English and in foreign languages are now available, 
about seventy-five being circulated each week. 

The serious efforts to improve the health and educational 
standards of the community were relieved by the organization of 
many recreational activities. As the improvements in the homes 
were carried out by and through the children, efforts were made 
to have them regard the station as their playground as well as a 
place for practical work. A Little Mothers’ League was organ¬ 
ized for girls between the ages of eight and sixteen, which now 
has a membership of forty. Meetings are held every week, par¬ 
liamentary rules are followed and presiding officers are elected 
by popular vote. Lectures on health are given at each meeting. 
Each member signs a pledge to take care of the babies, and is 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


289 


given a Little Mothers' League badge after attendance at three 
meetings. -The subjects of the weekly lessons are as follows: 
(i) growth and development; (2) teeth and what to notice in the 
baby; (3) bathing and the value of water; (4) fresh air; (5) 
sleep and quiet; (6) clothing and cleanliness; (7) first care of 
sick baby; (8) milk; (9) feeding; (10) care of milk, bottles and 
nipples; (11) home directions for milk modification (demonstrate 
process) ; (12) albumen, water and whey (demonstrate process) ; 
(13) quiz and essays on baby care. 

Each member has one baby assigned to her care. She is in 
duty bound to visit this baby daily, in most cases her own sister 
or brother, and to do everything possible to help the mother. A 
report of each baby is kept, which the nurse checks up, and in 
case of illness she is at once notified. The members receive 
special instruction on how to observe symptoms of illness and 
what to do to relieve distress before the nurse calls. Demonstra¬ 
tions are held on life-size dolls. The league gave an exhibition 
of its work at a school assembly in the presence of all the pupils 
and teachers and some mothers. The members were dressed as 
nurses and actually demonstrated the lessons previously taught 
them by the nurse. Formerly the girls had no community inter¬ 
est and spent all their time in school, in housework or on the 
“dumps.” The Little Mothers’ League has given them a new in¬ 
terest and a new point of view. All spare time at the meetings 
is taken up with the reading of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The 
Little Princess,” and with occasional dancing. All the children’s 
dolls are now named “Emily” after the doll in the story! 

A Boy Scout Troop has been organized for the boys on the 
Island, under the direction of one of the public school teachers, 
an ex-sergeant of the United States army. Some thirty boys have 
already joined and are now provided with uniforms and a large 
American flag has been secured. Appropriate field exercises are 
held each legal holiday. 

A “Camp Fire Girls” division has also been organized for the 
older girls and a “Bluebird” division for the younger girls, and 
considerable interest is being displayed by the mothers as well as 
the children in the folk-dances, costumes and credits for good 
behavior at home. 

An Altar Society, whose members are young girls of school 
age, has also been formed. They sweep and dust the church and 
sacristy and decorate the altars with whatever greens and flowers 
can be had. The former cheerlessness, dust and quiet of the 


290 


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church has disappeared. Formerly the singing at church was 
done only by the organist. Now some of the Altar Society mem- , 
bers and others have formed a church choir, rehearsals being 
held at the station, and a general celebration was held on Christ¬ 
mas with many participating. 

Through the courtesy of one of the plants, some waste land 
has been turned into a ball and athletic field for the boys and 
girls. The yard of the station was also turned into a model 
garden and divided into twelve plots for the most deserving chil¬ 
dren in school. Such keen interest was shown that some 200 
packets of vegetable and flower seeds were secured from the gov¬ 
ernment and distributed among the children. Little gardens ap¬ 
peared here and there as if over night. Swings and hammocks 
were put up where, on account of a few stunted trees, plants 
could not be grown. 

An outing and Americanization Day celebration has now been 
arranged for Sunday, July 2d, at which all the children and their 
mothers and fathers will be given a boat ride to a nearby picnic 
resort, a band has been secured, and appropriate patriotic exer¬ 
cises will be given by the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls and other 
children. Every excursionist will carry an American flag and 
short addresses in their own languages will be made by a few of 
the more Americanized men. 

The station has served many other purposes in the com¬ 
munity. Through the constant activity of the nurse, who is in 
reality an Americanizing domestic educator, a new water main 
has been laid, fences have been repaired, mongrel dogs have been 
sent to the pound, relief has been secured for the poor, a volun¬ 
teer Fire Brigade has been formed, a Mothers’ Club has been 
organized, saving facilities have been provided and thrift en¬ 
couraged, “quack” medicine vendors have been driven out of the 
community and a Defense League has been formed. Such ad¬ 
justments to their varied community relationships have brought 
about a new civic spirit, have set a higher standard of living and 
have developed in this large group of foreigners a genuine in¬ 
terest in the welfare of the country in which they live. The work 
has been constructive and farreaching and will, no doubt, prove 
to be of permanent value to the residents and the community and 
cannot but promote a stable population and a high type of 
American citizenship. 

Immigrants in America Review. 2:54-60. July, 1916. 


INDUSTRY 


THE ENGLISH FOR SAFETY CAMPAIGN 

Marian K. Clark 

CHIEF INVESTIGATOR, BUREAU OF INDUSTRIES AND IMMIGRATION, 
NEW YORK STATE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 

Apart from the conservation of life and limb the “English 
for Safety Campaign” aims at more complete sharing of thought 
and better understanding in industry. This means not only con¬ 
servation of time and temper, but a larger productive power in 
every industry employing aliens. In the 60,000 factories of the 
State of New York, 2,000,000 workers are employed, of whom 
approximately 1,600,000 are foreign born. Of these 400,000 are 
unable to read or write even in their own language, 800,000 can¬ 
not understand or speak English. This is a condition which 
makes democracy impossible and is a barrier to industrial prog¬ 
ress. How to reach these handicapped workers and enable them 
to be worth more and so to earn more and be less liable to injury 
and desolation is our problem. 

English Language and Cost of Accidents 

During the year 1914, the first year in which the Workmen's 
Compensation Law as effective in New York, there were 40,000 
compensated and 225,000 reported accidents. In 1915 there were 
50,000 compensated out of 270,000. In 1916, from a total of 
313,000 accidents, 58,500 were compensated, costing $11,500,000 
or $40,000 a day, and at the present writing reports of accidents 
are being filed at the rate of 1,000 a day, or at a cost of $13,000,- 
000 per year as an initial expenditure, to which must be added 
the cost of medical benefits, administration of the compensation 
law, wages and cost of turnover, which has increased the total 
direct and indirect cost of accidents in New York State to 
$35,000,000, or at the rate of about $117,000 per day, for 1917. 

Seven out of every ten applicants for compensation require 
the services of an interpreter; when a man requires an interpreter 
to present his claim, he presumably is unable to understand work 
directions in English, and for that reason alone is needlessly ex- 


292 


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posed to injury. If, therefore, about 70 per cent of all industrial 
accidents in New York State are largely attributable to ignorance . 
of the language in which safety directions are given, and by in¬ 
struction in the factory for one hour a day for sixty days it is 
probable that one half of the number of accidents could be pre¬ 
vented, the immediate gross saving to our industries would equal 
$50,000 per day! 

It must be recalled that ignorance of English limits efficiency 
and advancement, increases public dependency and renders less 
capable the able-bodied laborer, who is becoming so increasingly 
valuable. All educators are agreed that night schools do not 
solve this grave problem and while some of the young and en¬ 
ergetic are reached through the combination of the community 
centre and the night class, the vast majority of the older men 
and women after a hard day’s work have neither the desire nor 
the mental or physical ability to absorb instruction. 

At a recent conference of the National Committee of One 
Hundred, under the auspices of the United States Bureau of 
Education at Washington, representatives of School Boards from 
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Michigan, as well 
as New York City, were agreed on the fact that might schools 
did not adequately reach the illiterate adult alien. The minutes 
of that conference will prove conclusively that while night schools 
in the first term show a good registration, at the beginning of the 
second term, this attendance actually precipitates. . . . Out of 
500,000 foreign-born illiterates in the City of New York, the 
evening schools last year succeeded in reaching only about 55,000, 
and of these, few were non-English speaking aliens. The 1914 
report of the Bureau of Industries and Immigration recom¬ 
mended “compulsory school attendance for every illiterate alien 
over sixteen years of age residing in the State of New York/' 
Could such an amendment to the Compulsory Education Law 
be enacted, the necessity for supplying teachers especially trained 
to conduct classes in factories would then be evident. . . . Such 
teachers are not available now. 

The relationship existing between compensation, turnover and 
illiteracy, and its enormous cost in money and efficiency is bad 
in times of peace, but now, during this war of devastation, it is a 
tragedy. The alien who enters our country physically sound and 
owing to his illiteracy becomes physically broken becomes an ad¬ 
ded economic burden and is in addition grievously sinned against. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


293 


Every common laborer is an asset to this country; his economic 
value increases or diminishes in comparison to his productivity. 
For his employer or his adopted country to permit him to become 
a liability when in a period of only sixty hours he can be con¬ 
verted into an asset to himself, his employer, and the State, savors 
of industrial as well as social and political negligence. 

An ‘‘English for Safety Campaign” in factories is an imme¬ 
diately practical way by which accident can be lessened. The 
factory itself is the place where the school room should be, in 
order to be effective. The illiterate does not appreciate his own 
handicaps, and usually will not learn unless the employer makes 
the way easy and inviting. The greatest handicap in any Eng- 
lish-teaching campaign is lack of money incentive to the worker 
to learn. The employer is in a position to furnish the money in¬ 
centive. It has been shown clearly that the whole matter is one 
of dollars and cents; that it repays the employer, not only in the 
long run but at once; moreover the best results are attained by 
paying the wage while the worker is being taught. It has been 
found to be a saving for the employer to allot the time without 
loss of wage to the worker, for an English-teaching campaign 
in a factory means larger economy in management. 

A hygienic educational and social propaganda makes for per¬ 
sonal advancement; and the efficiency of the worker makes for 
the prosperity of the employer, not sometimes but always. 

The State, the corporation and the individual employer owe 
a moral obligation to our immigrant population. The welfare of 
both the State and the employer is bound up in the welfare of 
the industrial worker. We cannot ignore one without injuring 
the other. 

From Address, Safety Conference, New York State Industrial Commis¬ 
sion, December 3, 1917, Syracuse, N. Y. 


294 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


AMERICAN INDUSTRY AND IMMIGRANT 
LABOR 

John H. Fahey 

FORMER PRESIDENT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES 
OF AMERICA 

At least one part of the task of conserving labor is quite be¬ 
yond the powers and the scope of the individual industry. I refer 
to the immigrant workman, and especially the unskilled laborer. 
In his case especially it is impossible to separate his industrial 
from his civic and social relations—efficiency in one is impossible 
without competence in the other. In plain words, non-English- 
speaking workmen, living by southern European standards, ig¬ 
norant of American industrial ideals, with no sense of the re¬ 
sponsibilities of American residence, to say nothing of American 
citizenship, are not a stable asset in industry. Yet upon this un¬ 
steady foundation today many of our most imposing industrial 
structures are being raised—our railroads, our steel plants, our 
great new munition factories, and a dozen others in the order of 
their importance. 

In the conservation forces and agencies which American in¬ 
dustry has up to this time developed, the immigrant labor supply 
has been more than all other factors neglected. We have devel¬ 
oped a tradition of taking huge immigrant labor supplies in the 
rough and using them in the rough. They have been drafted to 
this job or that according to their face value. And in spite of 
our favorite stories of immigrants risen from the ranks, we know 
this to be true—that the typical history of the immigrant laborer 
in this country is that he has stayed where he was first drafted— 
in the same class and condition at which he was first appraised. 
Men skilled in some old-country trade have stayed for years by 
the American pick and hoe. The road to industrial progress is 
not easily found, if indeed it is accessible at all, by men whose 
only point of contact with America is the American job they hold. 

When immigration is resumed a real conservation policy will, 
therefore, demand a more careful scrutiny of the labor forces we 
draft from the old countries. Some of the scientific hiring prin¬ 
ciples we are introducing everywhere else we shall have to apply 
here, too. I am inclined to think that the days of drafting men 
off to jobs in hundreds or thousands, by blue tickets, not by 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


295 


names, is over. The method will not stand the test of conserva¬ 
tion principles. I am inclined to think that our national govern¬ 
mental policy will institute at the ports of entry a procedure that 
will make quite impossible this obliteration, so to speak, of certain 
capacities and potentialities in our immigrant labor supply. 

The present has a sufficient task. How are we to make the 
most of the immigrant labor forces now in this country? I have 
said that it is a larger matter than the individual industry can 
handle. It requires the scope, the cumulative power, and effort 
of organized business on a nation-wide basis. In saying that 
the problem ramifies into the fields of social and civic welfare, we 
indicate that making the immigrant competent in American life 
is certainly not the charge of American business alone, nor per¬ 
haps of American business primarily. But these two facts re¬ 
main: that the immigrant will never be industrially efficient until 
he is socially competent, until he knows English and the customs 
and standards of America; and that whatever the legitimate re¬ 
sponsibility of industry may or may not be, the employer is the 
American force that is nearest to the immigrant. The employer 
holds the strategic position; and it will be he, more than any 
other agency, who will through industrial channels bring the 
immigrant workman to both industrial and civic efficiency. 

And the unit of work will be the city, not the individual in¬ 
dustry. Employers will do well to cooperate in finding out jusf 
where they stand in their cities with reference to immigrant labor. 
That will be a very good first step toward discovering just what 
will have to be done to conserve the labor force of the city and 
make it efficient. I believe a survey of the immigrant population 
is a really critical need in every industrial center in the United 
States today. I do not see how any city can successfully adapt 
its institutions to a population of which it has no real record or 
index. 

When the workman has the English language, and citizenship, 
or when he is in preparation for citizenship, he has a very good 
start toward industrial efficiency. But, in aiding him to attain 
these things by every means in its power, organized business has 
done only part of the work open to it in this task of conservation. 
In a very large degree the immigrant workman gets his social 
standards through industry. Americans may come to the same 
town and impose standards upon the town, however unpromising 
its apparent resources. But the immigrant workman takes what- 


296 


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ever standards and facilities he finds, accepts, for instance, what¬ 
ever housing is pointed out to him, buys and sells according to 
the advice of those that have put themselves in a position to 
advise him on such matters, deposits his savings, makes his in¬ 
vestment by the same kind of advices. At present the immigrant 
is neither a good investor—in America—nor a good saver. 

We now have great concentration of labor at various points; 
“boom towns” and “mushroom cities” are springing up. Bridge¬ 
port has added 14,000 to its population in the last few months. 
Midvale builds houses by night to accommodate its new work¬ 
men. Hopewell, Va., increased in population from about 600 to 
nearly 30,000 in less than six months. We now have the problem 
how to house and conserve the efficiency of this labor concentra¬ 
tion, and a sudden decrease of war orders would bring us.face 
to face with the problem of redistributing it in other industries. 

Workmen are making money. This is the time to talk sav¬ 
ings, not extravagance, and to urge American investment. Amer¬ 
ica is the place in which the savings of our immigrant workmen 
should be invested. The American Bankers’ Association, in its 
newly inaugurated campaign for thrift, needs the cooperation of 
commercial organizations. 

For these important reasons the Directors of the Chamber of 
Commerce of the United States have recently approved the ap¬ 
pointment of a Committee on Immigration to bring this question 
up to the business organizations throughout the country and to 
stimulate constructive and helpful thought concerning the immi¬ 
grant as an American factor as well as an industrial asset; to 
take some purposeful and uniform action in all sections toward 
improving industrial relations between employees and employers; 
to facilitate methods for making foreign-born workingmen citi¬ 
zens of the United States; for enabling them to learn the English 
language and to become a more vital part of American life. 

Other countries, even in the midst of a struggle for their very 
existence, are considering measures for rehabilitating after the 
war. France has appointed a commission to consider this matter. 
But America shows an astounding indifference. 

Immigrants in America Review. 2:47-9. Ap., ’16. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


297 


PROMOTING AMERICANIZATION 

By Helen Varick Boswell 

CHAIRMAN OF EDUCATION, GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN’S CLUBS 

Women throughout the country have wakened up to the fact 
that, however we may feci as to the degree of coast defences and 
standing armies needed, we should recognize that quite as impor¬ 
tant as forts and submarines is our national attitude of mind. 
Quite as important as the standing army is that we have one 
nation instead of many peoples. 

We have begun to realize that peoples living side by side do 
not necessarily constitute the nation, and that the factory and 
mine are not the only or necessarily the best medium for making 
citizens. It is being borne in upon our minds that in the efficient 
and harmonious union of many peoples in a common defense of 
any one nation there are at least three prime essentials: a com¬ 
mon language with a minimum amount of illiteracy; a common 
citizenship, including similar ideals, beliefs, standards and cus¬ 
toms, and symbolized by the oath of allegiance to America; and 
a high standard of living, which, in a democratic country, tends 
to diminish disaffection and disloyalty at critical times and at 
strategic points. 

There are in the country 5,439,801 foreign-born women of fif¬ 
teen years or over. When they arrive with their families, the 
husband goes to work and almost immediately establishes con¬ 
tacts which give him a view of America. His mind opens, he 
begins to master his American environments. The children are 
put in a public school—they form friendships with American- 
born children, they learn American ways and soon they are the 
arbiters in all family matters to be decided according to American 
standards. They, instead of the parents, become the custodians 
and sources of authority, and family discipline breaks down. The 
mother is the slave of all work; she forms the dull old-world 
background of her American family—who often become ashamed 
of it and of her. She does not learn English: she gets the left¬ 
overs of America from her progressive family; she does not be¬ 
come Americanized; she does not absorb new ideals and ideas; 
she learns little about American foods and about ways for caring 
for her children in the new and very different climate. It is not 
unusual after fifteen years in this country to find English spoken 


298 


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by every member of the family but mother, and American clothes 
worn by all but mother. Even this superficial distinction closes 
many doors to her. Her grown-up daughter in a highly Amer¬ 
icanized hat does not want to go shopping with her mother who 
still wears a black shawl over her head. It is not that the 
mother looks so ugly, but that the clinging to the old black shawl 
typifies to the daughter her mother’s whole lack of understanding 
of the new world and the new ideas in which the daughter is liv¬ 
ing. The mother, far from being an aid in Americanizing her 
family, becomes a reactionary force. Sadly or obstinately as it 
may be, but always ignorantly, she combats every bit of Amer¬ 
icanism that her husband and children trjr to force into the 
Southern European home. Yet when the husband passes tests 
entitling him to citizenship she becomes a full-fledged citizen also, 
as do her children—all prepared but the mother. 

The United States Bureau of Education, the National Ameri¬ 
canization Committee, the Bureau of Naturalization and other 
organizations interested in the immigrant—in the elimination of 
illiteracy and in the conversion of the immigrant into the fairly 
educated citizen—turn to the club women of the country for 
practical help. 

What good those club women can do in the way of definite 
work to promote this real Americanization, especially among the 
immigrant, women, can be placed somewhat in this wise: Find out 
how many immigrant women there are in the community. Do 
they speak English? Do their husbands? Are their husbands 
naturalized? Is the home a Southern European or an American 
home? Is the family American in its loyalty? Does it know 
enough of America to be loyal to it? Undoubtedly the children 
speak English; but what is the real nature of their Americanism? 
Did they learn it chiefly at school and at home—or on the corner 
and in the pool room? Reach the immigrant woman. It is the 
only way to produce American homes. See that she learns Eng¬ 
lish. Through it she gets her first American contacts. But im¬ 
migrant women can rarely attend night school. Organize for 
them, as has been done in a number of places, classes from two 
to three in the afternoon. 

Just as immigrant men are taught English successfully only 
when the instruction deals with the subject matter of their daily 
life and work, so the method of teaching English to women can 
best be associated with methods of housekeeping, cooking, sew- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


299 


ing, etc. Moreover, many American standards and customs can 
be brought to the immigrant woman in this way. She can really 
be initiated into Americanism and the language at once. 

Especially at first it will be very difficult to get immigrant 
women to attend classes in the public schools—and so at first, and 
perhaps later also—there must be friendly visitors and teachers, 
“domestic educators” as they have been called, to carry the Eng¬ 
lish language and American ways of caring for babies, ventilating 
the house, preparing American vegetables, instead of the inevitable 
cabbage, right into the new homes. The State of California has 
through its department of public education provided for these 
friendly visitors. Until other places with heavy immigrant popu¬ 
lation act with similar enlightenment, may not women’s clubs 
step in and blaze the trail for a public education policy? Can 
they not pay domestic educators, or meet local boards of educa¬ 
tion half way in so doing? They can organize mothers’ classes, 
cooking classes, sewing classes, classes for entertainment. Re¬ 
member that immigrant women, if of different races, often know 
one another even less than they know Americans. 

Make immigrant women good citizens. Help them make the 
homes they care for into American homes. Give their children 
American ideals at home, as well as in school. Make American 
standards of living prevail throughout the community, not merely 
in the “American sections.” Above all show the rest of the com¬ 
munity that this work of Americanizing immigrant mothers and 
immigrant homes is in the highest sense a work of citizenship, a 
part of a national patriotic ideal. 

The relationship of Americanizing the foreign-born women in 
their homes to all the aspects of the development of our indus¬ 
tries is tremendous, and will become more and more clear to us 
as being the work to which we should set our hands. American 
industry, of course, has made the population of this country what 
it is today—some one hundred million people drawn from many 
countries, about one-sixth of them born in foreign lands. 

The sign language in factories, the foreign language and the 
padrone in the labor camps, villages and colonies scattered 
throughout cities; several million non-citizens and non-voters liv¬ 
ing and working under laws in the making of which they have no 
voice, of which they have little knowledge, and for which they 
sometimes have little respect; thousands of naturalized voters, 
but with no real American contact or American understanding, 


300 


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marshalled and voted in companies by American bosses—all these 
conditions, now prevalent and typifying our failure to assimilate 
our immigrant population, are not chargeable to industry. 

But industry is the force in American life which has the 
remedy chiefly in its control. And only the organized assistance 
of industry can make it possible for this country within any 
reasonable time to unify the present heterogeneous factors in our 
national life, and substitute for a babel of tongues the English 
language; substitute for a half-dead loyalty to the familiar old 
country—and a half-alive loyalty to the unknown new one—an 
understanding and unequivocal American citizenship; for old 
country homes in American cities and mill and mining towns, 
American homes with American standards of living; for the 
vague mixture of memories and aspirations that characterizes 
these men without a country, a vivid and alert American patri¬ 
otism. 

In the work of Americanization, so long neglected, now so 
urgent, industry has the strategic position. Many functions of 
government and society are concerned with Americanization— 
and are perhaps primarily responsible for it, such as our public 
schools, our employment systems, our courts, our social protective 
organizations. But most of these have no direct or influential or 
authoritative approach to the immigrant, unless he becomes a 
public charge. The employer has. The gist of the whole situa¬ 
tion lies in this. And it is to the employer that the nation now 
turns for immediate aid and cooperation in the gravest task that 
the country has faced since 1861—the necessity of reinforcing our 
national unity, of making our many peoples one nation, marked 
from coast to coast by a common language, a common accept¬ 
ance of industrial standards, a common understanding of the 
rights and obligations of American citizenship. 

But this fact remains: the Americanization of our foreign- 
born workmen, even so far as teaching English, merely, is con¬ 
cerned, is too vast a project for the individual industry. Indus¬ 
tries vary in wealth, equipment, stability of labor, hours, and in a 
dozen other ways. Teaching the English language and citizen¬ 
ship to immigrant workmen is a legitimate part of public policy. 
It belongs to the public schools and the courts of every com¬ 
munity, aided by every civic force. The greatest service the in¬ 
dustries of any community can render to themselves, to the social 
destiny of their community, and to the cause of our national soli- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


301 


darity is to back their organized support solidly up against the 
public school system in its task of making English-speaking resi¬ 
dents and citizens of every family in the community. American¬ 
ization is a civic matter. The need of it now is a national crisis. 

The swiftest hope of Americanization lies in the active prac¬ 
tical cooperation of employers, the public schools, the courts, and 
bodies of patriotic citizens. In this work of preparedness it will 
often be left to industries to take the initiative. It is their privi¬ 
lege to do so. 

It is the privilege and it is the duty of club women to give 
their time, their powers of instruction and their enthusiasm to 
the work of getting our language and understanding of the prin¬ 
ciples of our common life into the hearts and minds of the 
foreign-born women. Once start these foreign women in the 
paths of learning and your task is not difficult; they believe in 
you, and after a little while will break away from their hide¬ 
bound traditions and will become plastic for your moulding. 

It is always touching to attend a class of foreign-born women 
with wistful faces and childlike faith in the instructors, trying, 
oh, so intently, to follow the sounds of the letters and words, and 
to trace those letters and words from the blackboard. The prog¬ 
ress made by hard-working housemothers, who slip away from 
their many duties for a half hour or hour in the afternoon on 
certain days of the week, to take advantage of the opportunities 
offered by school or other social center is simply marvelous. 
The reading aloud by them of the word or of the simple sentence, 
the struggle to get just the right inflection, the giving of them¬ 
selves to this great effort, is a tremendous thing to see. It is 
courage personified—it is the keen desire to keep up with then- 
children, to know for themselves the things they are living in 
the midst of, to get to a point of writing and speaking a common 
language. And you never fail to see all this in any little class 
of foreign-born adult women. 

Well circumstanced men and women of any community, to 
help in this development of citizenship is not an isolated piece of 
welfare work directed toward the alien group by the more for¬ 
tunate of the community, but the sharing of rights and traditions 
and principles by Americans with Americans. 

Annals of Amer, Acad, of Polit. and Social Science. 64:204-9. March, 
1916. 


302 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


AMERICANIZATION: A CONSERVATION 
POLICY FOR INDUSTRY 

Frances A. Kellor 

ORGANIZER AND ARDENT ADVOCATE OF AMERICANIZATION, 

NATIONAL AMERICANIZATION COMMITTEE, NEW YORK CITY. 

We hear much these days of a new term. It is called Amer¬ 
icanization. We use it rather glibly—it sounds well, but what 
does it mean? It means somehow or other that America shall 
profit by what immigrants bring in addition to their labor; it 
means that along with rights go duties; it means that Americans 
must give more to the foreigner than a job and a bunk to sleep 
in; that in some way we must all have a more common under¬ 
standing of the opportunities and ideals of America; of the 
meaning of her institutions and liberties; and that we can con¬ 
verse in a common language and stand up under one flag. 

Americanizing America is the task and responsibility of 
Americans. There is no subterfuge, excuse, or sophistry by 
which native born sons can escape this duty. Many bewail the 
fate of the American who lives in a tenement or town made 
unendurable by foreigners, but the custody of America’s institu¬ 
tions, liberties and destinies belongs to native born Americans. 
The trouble is they have found it easier to retreat than advance, 
easier to move than to change their environment, easier to os¬ 
tracize than to tolerate and educate their foreign born neighbors. 
Making money and being comfortable and not seeing the other 
side of American life has been the easiest way out. , 

We are face to face with two fundamental propositions in our 
Americanization movement. Our citizenship toll is heavy in our 
waste of men. The very essence of preparedness is to keep 
every man in America in the best possible physical and spiritual 
condition, and the place to do it is the industry, and the indus¬ 
trial community. 

Important as the cities are, the strength of this nation does 
not rest in the greatest cities. There are east of the Alleghenies 
some 500 so called munitions plants, upon which we must rely 
mainly in time of war. Not one is in New York City or Boston. 
The most vulnerable point in our transportation system is not at 
the terminal; it is at the various points from which supplies and 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


303 


men must be started with ease and rapidity and carried along, 
and the coordination of the interlocking systems throughout the 
country. The Lake Superior copper region may in a moment 
become more important than any seaport city. We must there¬ 
fore look to our thousands of industries scattered throughout 
the land for our fundamental preparedness. 

Americanization which looks to the unity of all peoples in 
America behind America’s flag on American soil, so far as it 
relates to industry, covers three main subjects. Our existing in¬ 
dustries have so overgrown themselves and everything else that 
we have to arrive at our goal chiefly by processes of elimination. 
In our response to war orders and building plants we seem 
in some instances to have forgotten every standard of health, 
decency and comfort. We build plants without houses for work¬ 
men; we build houses without sanitation or comfort; we build 
towms without streets or government almost over-night; we work 
men overtime until the symbol of America is the dollar—there¬ 
fore we have to build our Americanization platform by elimina¬ 
tion. 

The first fundamental proposition in industrial preparedness 
is the elimination of the physical toll by such physical construc¬ 
tion of the plant as will give the best possible conditions in light, 
air, freedom from dust, wash and lunch rooms and appliances 
for preventing and for dealing with accidents. 

The second fundamental proposition is the elimination of 
production tolls by economy in administration, elimination of 
waste, etc., by the adoption of so-called efficiency methods. 

The third fundamental proposition is the elimination of cit¬ 
izenship tolls (because in the last analysis the country pays the 
bills), by the adoption of methods which will conserve workmen 
and stabilize the labor market. 

The labor turnover in this country in various industries is 
appalling. Germany would consider it military suicide and 
France would deal with it as a national disgrace. With our sea¬ 
sonal industries, our indifference to responsibility for dovetail¬ 
ing, our methods of employment, we find the average industry 
employing anywhere from two to five men to keep one at a cost 
of $30 per man for every one employed. I submit as a funda¬ 
mental proposition that we cannot use to any great advantage 
any of our chief Americanization agencies—the school, the nat¬ 
uralization court, the home, the community responsibility, per- 


304 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


sonal friendships or a stake in America—with the man who goes 
from industry to industry, from town to camp, and who finally . 
comes to regard the saloon as the one agency adapted to his 
needs and always open. By our present system the immigrant 
peasant who has lived all his life in his home village, becomes 
the itinerant workman of America and the greatest of our state 
“trotters.” 

We shall never stabilize the labor market by legislation. We 
may facilitate it by a national system of employment exchanges 
which may also point the way, but the task is to be done in 
every small industry and every large industry under the spur of 
economy and in a spirit of national preparedness. The industry 
must install an employment department under capable manage¬ 
ment which will enable it to know its men and place them in the 
first instance effectively throughout the plant. This must be 
supplemented with a fair system of promotions and transfers 
based on efficiency records; and dismissals should not be made 
without giving the employee a hearing and attempting adjustment. 

Most important in stabilizing the labor supply is the wide ex¬ 
tension of insurance to include accidents, industrial diseases, 
health, sickness and service annuities. The basis of securing 
these is the widest possible education upon the subject of labor 
turnover—its cost and causes. We need first a campaign on 
labor turnover as a menace to preparedness which will cause 
every employer to look into his own status on this subject. 

* * * * * * 

It is the essence of justice that no man be deprived of the 
opportunity to earn his living because of lack of knowledge of 
English and citizenship unless every facility be provided for 
learning these and fitting himself for citizenship. It is, how¬ 
ever, true, that our schools will remain empty, even with com¬ 
pulsory education laws, as in Massachusetts, that our citizenship 
preparation and examinations will remain in most instances a 
political farce, until industries make American citizenship their 
immediate responsibility. 

Amer. Acad, of Polit. and Social Science. 65:240-4. May, 1916. 


LABOR UNIONS 


AMERICANIZATION BY LABOR UNIONS 

John R. Commons 

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

This effort of organized labor to organize the unskilled and 
the immigrant is the largest and most significant fact of the 
present labor movement. Apart from the labor question itself, it 
means the enlistment of a powerful self interest in what may be 
termed the Americanization of the foreign born. For it is not 
too much to say that the only effective Americanizing force for 
the southeastern European is the labor union. The children of 
the foreigner become Americans through the public schools, but 
the foreigner himself receives no organized instruction in Amer¬ 
icanism until the labor union reaches out for him. Aside from 
the public school and the labor unions the only influences that 
might be expected to lift him into the atmosphere of our democ¬ 
racy are those of the church and the electoral suffrage. The 
church to which he gives allegiance is the Roman Catholic, and, 
however much the Catholic Church may do for the ignorant 
peasant in his European home, such instruction as the priest 
gives is likely to tend toward an acceptance of their subservient 
position on the part of the workingmen. It is a frequently ob¬ 
served fact that when immigrants join a labor union they almost 
insolently warn the priest to keep his advice to himself. 

Universal suffrage admits the immigrant to American politics 
within one to five years after landing. But the suffrage is not 
looked upon today as the sufficient Americanizing force that a 
preceding generation imagined. The suffrage appeals very dif¬ 
ferently to the immigrant voter and to the voter who has come 
up through the American schools and American life. The 
American has learned not only that this is a free government, 
but that its freedom is based on constitutional principles of an 
abstract nature. Freedom of the press, trial by jury, separation 
of powers, independence of the judiciary, and several other 
governmental and legal principles have percolated through his 
subconscious self, and when he contemplates public questions 


306 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


these abstract principles have more or less influence as a guide to 
his ballot. But the immigrant has none of these. He comes 
here solely to earn a better living. The suffrage is nothing to 
him but a means of livelihood. Not that he readily sells his vote 
for money—rather does he simply “vote for his job.” He votes 
as instructed by his employer or his political “boss,” because it 
will help his employer’s business or because his boss will get him 
a job, or will, in some way, favor him and others of his na¬ 
tionality. There is a noticeable difference between the immi¬ 
grant and the children of the immigrant in this regard. The 
young men, when they begin to vote, can be appealed to on the 
ground of public spirit; their fathers can be reached only on the 
ground of private interest. 

Now it cannot be expected that the labor union or any other 
influence will greatly change the immigrant in this respect. But 
the union does this much: it requires every member to be a cit¬ 
izen or to have declared his intention of taking out naturalization 
papers. The reasons for doing this are not political; they are 
sentimental and patriotic. The union usually takes pride in 
showing that its members are Americans and have foregone al¬ 
legiance to other countries. Again, the union frees its members 
from the dictation of employers, bosses and priests. Politicians, 
of course, strive to control the vote of organized labor, but so 
disappointing has been the experience of the unions that they 
have quite generally come to distrust the leader who combines 
labor and politics. The immigrant who votes as a unionist has 
taken the first step, in casting his ballot, towards considering the 
interests of others, and this is also the first step towards giving 
public spirit and abstract principles a place alongside private in¬ 
terest and his own job. 

But there is another way, even more impressive, in which the 
union asserts the preeminence of principles over immediate self- 
interest. When the foreigner from Southern Europe is inducted 
into the union, then, for the first time does he get the idea that 
his job belongs to him by virtue of a right to work and not as 
the personal favor or whim of a boss. These people are utterly 
obsequious before their foremen or bosses, and it is notorious 
that nearly always they pay for the privilege of getting and keep¬ 
ing a job. This bribery of bosses, as well as the padrone system, 
proceeds from the deep-seated conviction that despotism is the 
natural social relation, and that therefore they must make terms 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


307 


with the influential superior who is so fortunate as to have favor 
with the higher powers. 

The anthracite coal operators represented such men, prior to 
joining the union, as disciplined and docile workmen, but in do¬ 
ing so they disregarded the fact that outside the field where they 
were obsequious they were most violent, treacherous and fac¬ 
tional. Before the organization of the union in the coal fields 
these foreigners were given over to the most bitter and often 
murderous feuds among the ten or fifteen nationalities and the 
two or three factions within each nationality. The Polish wor¬ 
shipers of a given saint would organize a night attack on the 
Polish worshippers of another saint; the Italians from the one 
province would have a knife for the Italians of another province, 
and so on. 

When the union was organized all antagonisms of race, re¬ 
ligion and faction were eliminated. The immigrants came down 
to an economic basis and turned their forces against their bosses. 
“We fellows killed this country,” said a Polish striker to Father 
Curran, “and now we are going to make it.” The sense of a 
common cause, and, more than all else, the sense of individual 
rights as men, have come to these people through the organiza¬ 
tion of their labor unions, and it could come in no other way, 
for the union appeals to their necessities while other forces ap¬ 
peal to their prejudices. They are even yet far from ideal Amer¬ 
icans, but those who have hitherto imported them and profited 
by their immigration should be the last to cry out against the 
chief influence that has started them on the way to true Amer¬ 
icanism. 

The World Today. October, 1903. 


3o8 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


THE RIGHT TO LABOR IN JOY 

Edwin Markham 

Out on the roads they have gathered, a 
hundred-thousand men, 

To ask for a hold on life as sure as the 
wolfs hold in his den. 

Their need lies close to the quick of life 
as rain to the furrow sown: 

It is as meat to the slender rib, as marrow 
to the bone. 

They ask but the leave to labor for a 
taste of life’s delight, 

For a little salt to savor their bread, for 
houses watertight. 

They ask but the right to labor, and to 
live by the strength of their hands 

They who have bodies like knotted oaks, 
and patience like sea-sands. 

And the right of a man to labor and his 
right to labor in joy 

Not all your laws can strangle that right, 
nor the gates of Hell destroy. 

For it came with the making of man and 
was kneaded into his bones, 

And it will stand at the last of things on 
the dust of crumbled thrones. 

The Shoes of Happiness, and other poems, p. 126. New York, Double¬ 
day, Page and co., 1913. 


POLITICS 


NATURALIZED IMMIGRANTS AND 
POLITICAL LEADERS 

l 

Edward Alsworth Ross 

PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 

“Come over here quick, Luigi,” writes an Italian to his friend 
in Palermo. “This is a wonderful country. You can do any¬ 
thing you want to, and, beside, they give you a vote you can get 
two dollars for!” This Italian was an ignorant man, but not 
necessarily a bad man. It would not be just to look upon the 
later naturalized citizens as caring less for the suffrage than the 
older immigrants. Some of them appreciate the ballot all the 
more from having been denied it in the old country. For the 
Declaration of Independence and the Fourth of July they show 
a naive enthusiasm which we Americans felt a generation ago, 
before our muck had been raked. “The spirit of revolt against 
wrong,” says a well-known worker among immigrants, “is 
stronger in the foreign-born than in the natives, because they 
come here expecting so much democracy, and they are shocked 
by the reality they find. It is they who insist upon the complete 
program of social justice.” Granting all this, there is no deny¬ 
ing, however, that many of the later immigrants have only a dim 
understanding of what the ballot means and how it may be used. 

Thirty years ago we knew as little of the ways of the ward 
boss as we knew of the megatherium or the great auk. The 
sources of his power were as mysterious as were the sources of 
the Nile before Speke and Baker. Now, thanks to Miss Addams 
and other settlement-workers who have studied him in action 
from close at hand, we have him on a film. The ward boss was 
the discoverer of the fact that the ordinary immigrant is a very 
poor, ignorant and helpless man, in the greatest need of assist¬ 
ance and protection. Nevertheless, this man has, or soon will 
have, one thing the politician greatly covets, namely, a vote. 
The petty politician soon learned that by befriending and aiding 
the foreigners at the right time, he could build up an “influence” 
which he might use or sell to his own enrichment. So the ward 


3io 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


politicians became pioneers in social work. For the sake of con¬ 
trolling votes, they did many things that the social settlement 
does for nothing. 

It is Alderman Tim who gets the Italian a permit for his 
push-cart or fruit-stand, who finds him a city-hall job, or a place 
with a public-service corporation, who protects him if he vio¬ 
lates law or ordinance in running his business, who goes his bail 
if he is arrested, and “fixes things” with the police judge or the 
State’s attorney when he comes to trial. Even before Giuseppe 
is naturalized, it is Tim who remembers him at Christmas with a 
big turkey, pays his rent at a pinch, or wins his undying grati¬ 
tude by saving his baby from a pauper burial or sending car¬ 
riages and flowers to the funeral. 

All this kindness and timely aid is prompted by selfish mo¬ 
tives. Amply is Tim repaid by Giuseppe’s vote on election day. 
But at first Giuseppe misses the secret of the politician’s interest 
in him, and votes Tim-wise as one shows a favor to a friend. 
Little does he dream of the dollar-harvest from the public-ser¬ 
vice companies and the vice interests Tim reaps with the “power” 
he has built up out of the votes of the foreigners. If, however, 
Giuseppe starts to be independent in the election booth, he is 
startled by the Jekyll-Hyde transformation of his erstwhile 
friend and patron. He is menaced with loss of job, withdrawal 
of permit or license. Suddenly the current is turned on in the 
city ordinances affecting him, and he is horrified to find himself 
in a mysterious network of live wires. With the connivance of 
a corrupt police force, Tim can even ruin him on a trumped-up 
charge. 

The law of Pennsylvania allows any voter who demands it to 
receive “assistance” in the marking of his ballot. So in Pitts¬ 
burgh, Tim expects Giuseppe to demand “assistance” and to take 
Tim with him into the booth to mark his ballot for him. Some¬ 
times the election judges let Tim thrust himself into the booth 
despite the foreigner’s protest, and watch how he marks his bal¬ 
lot. In one precinct 92 per cent, of the voters received “as¬ 
sistance.” Two Italians who refused it lost their jobs forthwith. 
The high-spirited North Italians resent such intrusion, and some 
of them threaten to cut to pieces such intrusion, and some 
of them threaten to cut to pieces the interloper. But always the 
system is too strong for them. 

Thus the way of Tim is to allure or to intimidate, or even 
combine the two. The immigrant erecting a little store is vis- 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


3ii 


itcd by a building inspector and warned that his interior ar¬ 
rangements are all wrong. His friends urge the distracted man 
to “see Tim.” He does so, and kind Tim “fixes it up,” gaining 
thereby another loyal henchman. The victim never learns that 
the inspector was sent to teach him the need of a protector. So 
long as the immigrant is “right,” he may put an encroaching 
bay-window on his house or store, keep open his saloon after 
midnight, or pack into his lodging-house more than the legal 
number of lodgers. Moved ostensibly by a deep concern for 
public health or safety or morals, the city council enacts a great 
variety of health, building and trades ordinances, in order that 
Tim may have plenty of clubs to hold over the foreigner’s head. 

So between boss and immigrant grows up a relation like that 
between a feudal lord and his vassals. In return for the boss’s 
help and protection, the immigrant gives regularly his vote. The 
small fry get drinks or jobs, or help in time of trouble. The 
padrone, liquor-dealer, or lodging-house keeper gets license or 
permit or immunity from prosecution, provided he “delivers” the 
votes of enough of his fellow countrymen. The ward boss 
realizes perfectly what his political power rests on, and is very 
conscientious in looking after his supporters. 

Of the Irish “gray wolves” in the Chicago council I was told, 
“Each of them is a natural ward leader, and will go through 
hell-fire for his people and they for him.” 

To the boss with the hold on the immigrant the requirement 
that the poor fellow shall live five years in this country before 
voting presents itself as an empty legal formality. In 1905 a 
special examiner of the Federal Department of Justice reported: 
“Naturalization frauds have grown and spread with the growth 
and spread of the alien population of the United States, until 
there is scarcely a city or county-seat town—where in some form 
these frauds have not from time to time been committed.” In 
1845 a Louisiana judge was impeached and removed for fraud, 
the principal evidence being that he had issued certificates to 400 
aliens in one day. The legislature might have been more lenient 
could it have foreseen that in 1868 a single judge in New York 
would issue 2,500 of such certificates in one day! The gigantic 
naturalization frauds committed in the Presidential campaign of 
1868 resulted in an investigation by Congress and in the placing 
of congressional elections under Federal supervision. During 
the month of October two New York judges issued 54,000 cer- 


312 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


tificates. An investigation in 1902 showed about 25,000 fraudu¬ 
lent certificates of naturalization in use in that city. 

There is hardly need nowadays to recount what Tim and his 
kind have done with the power they filched through the votes of 
Giuseppe and Jan and Michael. They have sold out the city to 
the franchise-seeking corporations. They have jobbed public 
works and pocketed a “rake-off" on all municipal supplies. They 
have multiplied jobs and filled them with lazy henchmen. By 
making merchandise of building laws or health ordinances, they 
have caused an unknown number of people to be crushed, or 
burned, or poisoned.. 

Worst of all, by selling immunity from police interference to 
the vice interests, they have let the race be preyed on and con¬ 
sumed in the bud. Thanks to their “protection," a shocking pro¬ 
portion of the inhabitants of our cities of mixed population are 
- destroyed by drinking, dissipation, and venereal diseases. 

It is in the cities with many naturalized foreigners or en¬ 
franchised negroes that the vice interests have had the freest 
hand in exploiting and degrading the people. These foreigners 
have no love for vice, but unwittingly they become the corner¬ 
stone of the system that supports it. The city that has had the 
most and the rawest foreign-born voters is the city of the long¬ 
est and closest partnership of the police with vice. Tammany 
Hall first gained power by its “voting gangs” of foreigners, and 
ever since its Old Guard has been the ignorant, naturalized im¬ 
migrants. Exposed again and again, and thought to be shat¬ 
tered, Tammany has survived all shocks, because its supply of 
raw material has never been cut off. Not the loss of its friends 
has ever defeated it; only the union of its foes. The only 
things it fears are those that bore from within — social settle¬ 
ments, social centers, the quick intelligence of the immigrant 
Hebrew, stricter naturalization, and restriction of immigration. 

In every American city with a large pliant foreign vote have 
appeared the boss, the machine, and the Tammany way. Once 
the machine gets a grip on the situation, it broadens and en¬ 
trenches its power by intimidation at the polls, ballot frauds, 
vote purchase, saloon influence, and the support of the vicious 
and criminal. But its taproot is the simple-minded foreigner or 
negro, and without them no lasting vicious political control has 
shown itself in any of our cities. 

The machine in power used the foreigner to keep in power. 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


3i3 


The Italian who opens an ice-cream parlor has to have a victual- 
er’s license, and he can keep this license only by delivering Italian 
votes. The Polish saloon-keeper loses his liquor license if he 
fails to line up his fellow-countrymen for the local machine. 
The politician who can get dispensations for the foreigners who 
want their beer on a Sunday picnic is the man who attracts the 
foreign vote. Thus, until they get their eyes open and see how 
they are being used, the foreigners constitute an asset of the es¬ 
tablished political machine, neutralizing the anti-machine ballots 
of an equal number of indignant intelligent American voters. 

The saloon is often an independent swayer of the foreign vote. 
The saloon-keeper is interested in fighting all legal regulations of 
his own business, and of other businesses—gambling, dancehalls, 
and prostitution—which stimulate drinking. If “blue” laws are 
on the statute-book, these interests may combine to seat in the 
mayor’s chair a man pledged not to enforce them. Even if the 
saloon-keeper has no political ax of his own to grind, his mas¬ 
ters, the brewers, will insist that he get out the vote for the ben¬ 
efit of themselves or their friends. Since liberal plying with beer 
is a standard means of getting out the foreign vote, the immi¬ 
grant saloon-keeper is obliged to become the debaucher and be¬ 
trayer of his fellow-countrymen. In Chicago the worthy Ger¬ 
mans and Bohemians are marshaled in the “United Societies,” os¬ 
tensibly social organizations along nationality lines, but really the 
machinery through which the brewers and liquor-dealers may 
sway the foreign-born vote not only in defense of liquor, but 
also in defense of other corrupt and affiliated interests. 

The Old World in the New. pp. 266-76. New York. Macmillan. 1913- 


3H 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


WANTED—A PLACE TO PLAY 

Dennis A. McCarthy 

Plenty of room for dives and dens 
(glitter and glare and sin!) 

Plenty of room for prison pens 
(gather the criminals in!) 

Plenty of room for jails and courts 
(willing enough to pay!) 

But never a place for the lads to race; 
no, never a place for play! 

Give them a chance for innocent sport, 
give them a chance for fun: 

Better a playground plot than a court 
and a jail when the harm is done! 

Give them a chance—if you stint them 
now, tomorrow you’ll have to pay 

A larger bill for a darker ill; so give 
them a chance to play! 

“A Round of Rimes,” New York. Little, Brown & Co., 1915. 


RECREATION 


OUR RECREATION FACILITIES AND THE 
IMMIGRANT 

By Victor von Borosini 

STUDENT OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS, 

HULL HOUSE, CHICAGO 

From May to October is the busiest season of the playgrounds 
in Chicago. Then the open-air facilities are taxed to their ut¬ 
most, the gymnasiums, athletic fields and tennis courts, wading- 
ponds and swimming-pools. The playgrounds proper, with sand- 
piles and wading-ponds, are for the use of children under ten 
years of age, and are equipped with some apparatus for the en¬ 
joyment and play of the users. The wading-pond is one feature 
that attracts grown-up women to the parks. While their little 
ones enjoy the cool, refreshing water, or play in the sand, with 
absolute freedom from danger, the mothers sit on the benches, 
protected from the sun, sewing or doing other needlework and 
chatting with each other. Quite naturally, groups of one na¬ 
tionality form quickly, but as this sense is undeveloped in chil¬ 
dren, and as they mix with each other, their mothers will, sooner 
or later do likewise. Children are mostly benefited, as the 
fatiguing day’s work generally prevents the grown-up people from 
enjoying much physical exercise, except, perhaps, the swimming. 
The swimming-pools and beaches are the most popular features, 
and not only the men but the foreign women enjoy them twice a 
week. It does not cost anything, everything being free except 
transportation to the place. After the refreshing plunge in the 
pool they can often enjoy a concert given in the park or play¬ 
ground, the fresh air of a hot summer night being far better 
than the stifling heat in their homes. In some enlightened cities 
people are allowed to sleep out on the grass when the heat is 
especially oppressive, and thousands take advantage of it. 

During the colder season the shower baths which are con¬ 
nected with the gymnasiums are constantly used, much more so 
than the different public bathhouses one finds in some sections of 
the city. The reason for this may lie in the fact that the man- 


3i6 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


agement of the institutions is under different departments. At 
the playgrounds you generally find attendants willing to serve 
the public, under strict supervision as to their manner, while the • 
bathhouses are often managed by incompetent friends of some 
politician in the city hall. The indoor and open-air gymnasiums 
are only for children over ten years of age and adults. The ap¬ 
paratus, different in gymnasiums for men and women, helps a 
large crowd to play and practice as they please, but likewise 
gives the gymnasium instructor opportunity to work out his sci¬ 
entific and more formal plan of physical work. Here, as well as 
in athletics, foreigners will form groups of their own, which are 
brought in contact with other groups at the time of contests. 
Then keen excitement reigns supreme; the friends of both com¬ 
peting teams are present and shout for their favorites. Defeat 
is accepted, but always with the hope of doing better next time. 
In winter, skating and toboganning are enjoyed by young and 
old. 

In every human being is a sense of beauty, though it may 
sometimes be dormant. None of the new recreation centers and 
playgrounds can fail to satisfy the artistic vein in anybody and 
make him content and happy for the time being. To counteract 
a desire to go saloons for drinks and meals, we find very 
decent lunch counters and a few inviting tables in an especially 
fitted room, where simple meals and coffee and cocoa are served. 
Some of these places are stormed at noon, when school teachers, 
clerks and workingmen take their luncheons there. Public com¬ 
fort stations connected with each playground and field house are, 
indeed, a great comfort, as well as an educational means for 
cleanliness. They also keep men from going into the saloons. 

If any time is left at the noonday recess many people will take 
advantage of the public branch libraries established and main¬ 
tained by the park commissioners. More foreigners would prob¬ 
ably make use of the opportunity to increase their knowledge, 
and to enjoy a restful half-hour at other times, if these libraries 
were stocked with some foreign books and magazines. But al¬ 
most no provision is made for the different nationalities living 
around the parks, and the result is that, as a rule, only young 
people are seen in the reading rooms. At some playgrounds 
children are sent home from the library by eight o’clock; adults 
are expected to take their places, and, in fact, have come in large 
numbers. Quite naturally, they objected to the presence of 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


3i7 


crowds of children. In other cities the plan of having separate 
rooms for adults and children has been adopted with good suc¬ 
cess. Smoking is not allowed inside of the field houses and 
small parks, which is probably another reason for the men’s not 
coming in greater numbers. During the afternoon and evening 
hours the large rooms and halls of the parks and recreation 
centers serve other purposes. Children come after school hours 
for socials, story-telling hours; girls, for some kind of training 
in cooking and domestic science. Often they have rehearsals at 
this time for a singing contest, or a little children’s play, to be 
given at 8 P. M. in the large auditorium. Not only children play, 
but clubs and societies of grown-ups can have the privilege of the 
hall for the asking. Then, too, they have theatricals, musicals 
and dancing. Music they furnish themselves, also refreshments, 
and in the hall they keep order, while outside there are always 
special park policemen on the lookout. Men will still rush out 
and go to a saloon for a drink or smoke, though the drinking 
has been stopped to some extent. The influence of the hall upon 
dance halls in the neighborhood, and upon the way of dancing 
and the whole atmosphere, has been especially felt at the small 
parks, while in Bohemian and Polish neighborhoods they have 
been so successful that several dance halls back of saloons have 
had to be closed because their business has declined. Girls espe¬ 
cially like nice environments and decent conditions, such as are 
found in the field houses. What people do in one of the South 
Chicago parks, at Bessemer, may be best demonstrated by two 
clippings from the Daily Calumet, their local paper 

“Business is good at Bessemer. Among other things that will 
take place at the park this week are as follows: 

Tonight— 

7: 30. Bessemer Orchestra practice. 

Tuesday— 

2: 30. Bessemer Housekeepers' Club, consisting of seventy- 
five wives, who get valuable training. 

8: 00. Smugglers' dance. Social club. 

Wednesday— 

8: 00. Club for working boys. 

8: 00. Stereopticon lecture: Other worlds than ours. 

8: 30. Basketball. Armour Square vs. Bessemer. 

Thursday— 

8: 00. Meteor Athletic Dance. 


3i8 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


Friday— 

8 : oo. Rehearsal of gymnasium classes for gymnastic demon* 

stration. Glee Club rehearsal, under direction of • 
students of University of Chicago. 

Two hundred young people enjoyed themselves for hours on 
the Bessemer Park skating pond yesterday afternoon. If the cold 
weather continues it is very likely that there will be a local ice 
tourney at the park.” 

The larger parks are used in summer time by family groups 
for outings and picnics. Especially fine zoological gardens, 
green- and palm-houses, lakes and ponds attract hundreds and 
thousands every Sunday, and there is no age limit as to enjoy¬ 
ment. The ponds and lakes offer opportunity for boating and 
some fishing. Where large bodies of water lie not very far from 
the city, fishing continues to be one of the best-loved sports of 
the foreign population. If the results gratify the patience of the 
anglers, the diet in the kitchen experiences an agreeable change. 
Very few people, comparatively, keep up their cross-country 
tramps; it may be that the absence of forests, or woods, through 
which one may roam at one’s pleasure, as in Europe, takes away 
a good deal of the fun. The abominations in the form of beer 
gardens or amusement parks can hardly be mentioned here 
They are not fit places for recreation. 

A very encouraging movement, when it shall have been more 
generally adopted, may provide for the healthy recreation of 
whole families. I refer to the city gardens. European com¬ 
munities are surrounded by large tracts of land ultimately to be 
built over, but for quite a time there is no prospect of the city’s 
extending to them. Such lots are plotted out, flower and vege¬ 
table gardens started, and some kind of summerhouse added, hav¬ 
ing accommodations for pigeons and chickens. That the garden¬ 
ers are a friendly community they show at the many happy fetes 
on warm midsummer nights. The hard work done by every mem¬ 
ber of the family is rewarded by a variety of green vegetables, 
very helpful when everything is so expensive. At Bessemer Park, 
in South Chicago, last fall, we saw a splendid exhibit of the 
children’s garden products, and the work of Mrs. Pelham’s (of 
Hull House) friendly gardeners, belonging to ten different na¬ 
tionalities, was watched by everyone with great interest. 

The public library and its branch stations, and different mu¬ 
seums and collections, cater to the more intelligent of the foreign 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


3i9 


element, and are very much used by them for their recreation. 
The same can be said of the social settlements which, though not 
maintained as a public institution by the municipality, serve the 
general public and keep their doors open for everybody, without 
distinction of race, color or religion. We will follow here espe¬ 
cially what Hull House does for the recreation of its neighbors. 
The need and want of recreation for young and old is generally 
conceded; if they do not get it in one way they will get it in 
another, often under bad conditions in the city. 

Each department has a worker or two as directors. The 
directors of different groups are not very anxious to do all the 
work themselves, but they give suggestions when the members 
are unable to produce good, workable ideas themselves. Every 
detail is worked out, and great is the satisfaction when public 
applause shows success of the “stunt” or performance. We find 
different dramatic associations for children, juniors and seniors, 
and their work has met a merited and general appreciation. The 
Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, and Greek neighbors use the 
large auditorium for theatricals of their own; even deaf mutes 
once gave a representation in their sign language. Good music is 
offered to a large crowd of neighbors every Sunday afternoon, 
and this is not an amateur performance; good singers and players 
come from uptown to bring joy and pleasure to the hearts of the 
poor, who cannot pay for concerts. The second Sunday in Janu¬ 
ary a musical society from Evanston gave Handel’s “Messiah,” 
and though the hall accommodates 800, many people had to be 
turned away for lack of space. Musical instincts are well devel¬ 
oped among the Italians and Bohemians. The Hull House Music 
School has about one hundred pupils, and the Boy’s Club Band 
may number fifty members. Their open-air concerts during the 
summer were events for the whole neighborhood. 

During the winter months Sunday evening lectures are pro¬ 
vided, which are of general interest and which often lead to pro¬ 
longed discussions afterward. Travel, development of indus¬ 
tries, biological, and sociological subjects are discussed. The 
audience generally fills the hall, and many are told “No more 
room.” Special favorites are asked each year to lecture, and 
their coming is greeted with thundering applause. The Boys’ 
Club offers its hospitality to about one thousand boys. The un¬ 
derlying idea was to get them out of the streets and alleys, pool- 
rooms and bowling alleys, and get them to a place where they 


320 


RACE-ASSIMILATION 


could have some recreation under decent surroundings and good 
influences. Pool tables and bowling alleys, manual training, gym¬ 
nasium work, play and study rooms and a library are at the boys’. 
disposal, and a staff of men and women work hard to get some 
influence with the boys. The most loved forms of recreation are 
parties and dances for the grown-ups. 

The use of public schools after school hours for social pur¬ 
poses, municipal theaters and auditoriums for plays and dances, 
better library facilities, better and more beautiful housing of art 
galleries and other collections, increased bathing facilities, cheap 
and quick means of transportation to bring people out of the 
congested districts into the country have been established or are 
planned in all sections of the country. The progress made in the 
playground movement in the last nine years is astonishing, and it 
may be well to close this short survey of the recreation of the 
foreigner with the words of a Chicago student of the recreation 
centers. Mr Eckhart says: “In these playgrounds lies the real 
beginning of the social redemption of the people in large cities. 
The greatest need of American life today is some common meet¬ 
ing-ground for the people, where business may be forgotten, 
friendships formed and cooperation established. The playground 
seems to have great possibilities in that direction. It is already 
the social center for the children, and it is becoming more so, 

more and more for adults. If we can systematically encourage 

this tendency and organize our playgrounds accordingly, we shall 
do much to satisfy a great need. A field house, in itself, is a 
good beginning in the way of bringing playgrounds to adults. 

“The play festival is another feature which brings in the 
parents, and more and more games for the older people are com¬ 
ing to be added in most places. In many sections this year en¬ 
tertainments and fairs of one kind or another have been held on 
the playgrounds, and there is an increasing tendency for mothers 
especially to bring their small children and to visit with each 
other. A great deterrent to the use of playgrounds for adults is 

the name, which suggests that it is for children, and the other is 

the lack of recreation for older people and the general lack of 
benches for the parents. Finally, it seems to me the general pub¬ 
lic has as yet scarcely come to a true conception of the financial 
need of playground systems and the size of the checks that 
should be made out to sustain them.” 

Ann. Am. Acad. 35:357-67- March, 1910. 


SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 
FOR SECOND EDITION 


THE NECESSITY FOR CHANGES IN 
AMERICANIZATION METHODS 

Charles C. Cooper 

CHAIRMAN OF THE DIVISION ON THE LOCAL COMMUNITY, DIRECTOR 
OF THE KINGSLEY ASSOCIATION, PITTSBURGH 

Next to the public schools, the two agencies in America that 
are doing most for the education of the foreigner are the moving 
picture shows and the public press. We have always considered 
these agencies from the moral standpoint. It would seem wise 
in the future for us to consider them from the standpoint of 
Americanization. What picture of American life are they pre¬ 
senting to the immigrant? Each week there comes to my desk 
the multigraphed copy of the film eliminations by the state censor. 
I have been amazed at the evident attempt to drag in, forcibly, 
the vicious and criminal and lewd. When one thinks of the 
thousands of foreign born and their children who are accepting 
such scenes and plots as typical American, what will the end be? 

With respect to the public press, the same conditions obtain. 
The abnormal is written up in scare heads on the front page and 
cried out by newsboys on the streets. This is what is accepted 
by many an immigrant as the desirable and proper thing accord¬ 
ing to American standards. 

The three living Americans who have occupied the highest 
position in our country are President Wilson and Ex-Presidents 
Roosevelt and Taft. They have different natures, they will neces¬ 
sarily advocate different policies, and yet the mass of American 
citizens knows that all three are earnest, sincere and patriotic. 
If, in our late political campaigns, however, the foreign born 
citizen should accept what was daily printed and said about these 
three men as the truth or as typical American, what would be 


322 


AMERICANIZATION 


the reaction with reference to his Americanization ? What would 
he believe of America and American ideals? 

My main thought has been to show the necessity for a change- 
in our process of Americanization, and to leave to the speakers 
that follow me the expansion of our general theme of American¬ 
ization. 

I should like to suggest the elimination from public and pri¬ 
vate use, of the term that I have employed so frequently in this 
paper,—the word Americanisation. Americanization savors too 
much of denationalization. Many races have resisted for cen¬ 
turies, and resisted successfully, every effort at denationalization. 
The minute we attempt to Prussianize or Russianize a group, 
that group reacts with equal force against such attempt. The 
Poles, the citizens of Alsace-Lorraine, the Slavs of Austro-Hun- 
gary are examples well known today. Without external com¬ 
pulsion these races may become assimilated with other races, as 
in the United States. They thus permit what the force of 
centuries could not compel. 

The term, Americanization, seems to me to be freighted down 
with the mistakes of the old world. Its elimination is a matter 
of wisdom. 

I should like to suggest the word “adoption”; the American 
commonwealth shall adopt the immigrant as a citizen, and on the 
other hand the foreigner shall adopt this nation as his own coun¬ 
try. Final citizenship papers should be given but once a year, 
upon the American Adoption Day, when everything that can in¬ 
tensify and hallow the process should be done. This American 
Adoption Day should be the greatest of our holidays. Pageants, 
music, oratory, all should lend significance to it. The old folk¬ 
lore of the immigrant should be carefully studied and festivals 
and pageants be arranged so that this same folk-lore shall extend 
and bear its fruit in the New World. America as the Promised 
Land of the Jewish immigrant is a well known example. 

Across the fertile land of Africa they say the trail is marked 
by the whitened bones of the slave. Across our own beloved land 
we know there is another trail, the way of the immigrant, marked 
with lives wrecked by the work of the white slaver, the exploiter, 
the loan shark, the scheming politician, the rooming-house agent, 
the employment agency, the sweat shop, the conniving magistrate, 
and other beasts of prey. 


AMERICANIZATION 


323 


This immigrant trail must be made safe, perfectly safe, for all 
time. And to this end the Immigration Service of the Govern¬ 
ment must be extended, broadened, and socialized so that it can 
fully safeguard and protect the immigrant. Under direct federal 
supervision must be placed all agencies that touch the immigrant. 
Justice must be had for the asking. The cheating and exploiting 
agents and agencies must be rooted out or kept within bounds,— 
so that all may know that here in the United States the immi¬ 
grant as a visitor is the guest of the nation; and as a citizen he 
becomes automatically and with all the word implies, the ward 
of the nation. 

Thus far I have spoken as an American; but there is a task 
before America with respect to the foreigner, greater than the 
domestic problem of his assimilation. The international neigh¬ 
borhoods,— local communities, which are scattered from one end 
of this country to the other, are not only of interest as experi¬ 
mental stations in American democracy, but are of world-wide 
significance. 

God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” Brother¬ 
hood will not come from treaties, systems of economics or mor¬ 
ality ; neither will it be found in science, in art, nor in the pledges 
of fraternities— it is an attitude of mind. When in these interna¬ 
tional neighborhoods, within our settlement houses, and com¬ 
munity centers, and school buildings, the folk of the different 
races work and play together , the way is being paved for the 
time when brotherhood will have an international significance. 
Jewish women have dressed dolls at Kingsley House to be given 
away at our Kingsley Christmas. Syrian boys of different faiths 
have fought battles going to and from our house and yet played 
and worked together therein. 

To work and to play together. Ah! That is the basis of 
permanent peace. Possibly it is a dream—and yet I am thankful 
we still can dream in this age of war—that America, in solving 
the problem of democracy in her international neighborhoods may 
solve in a larger way the problem of democracy for the world, 
and may hasten the time when we may have, in peace and accord, 
“the parliament of man, the federation of the world.” 

From National Conference of Social Work. Pamphlet no. 1x5. 
Necessity for changes in Americanization methods. 1918. 


AMERICANIZATION 


3»4 


THE IMMIGRANT CONTRIBUTION 

| 

I am the immigrant. 

Since the dawn of creation my restless feet have beaten new 
paths across the earth. 

My uneasy bark has tossed on all seas. 

My wanderlust was born of the craving for more liberty and a 
better wage for the sweat of my face. 

I looked towards the United States with eager eyes kindled by 
the lire of ambition and heart quickened with new-born 
hope. 

I approached its gates with great expectation. 

I entered in with fine hope. 

I have shouldered my burden as the American man-of-all- 
work. 

I contribute 85 per cent of all the labor in the slaughtering and 
meat packing industries. 

I do 7/ioths of the bituminous coal mining. 

I do 7/8ths of all the work in the woolen mills. 

I contribute 9/ioth of all the labor in the cotton mills. 

I make i<p/20ths of all the clothing. 

I manufacture more than half the shoes. 

I build 4/5ths of all the furniture. 

I make half of the collars, cuffs and shirts. 

I turn out 4/5ths of all the leather. 

I make half the gloves. 

I refine nearly i9/20ths of the sugar. 

I make half of the tobacco and cigars. 

And yet I am the great American Problem. 

When I pour out my blood on your altar of labor, and lay down 
my life as a sacrifice to your God of Toil, men make no 
more comment than at the fall of a sparrow. 

My children shall be your children, and your land shall be my 
land because my sweat and my blood will cement the 
foundations of the America of Tomorrow. 

If I can be fused into the body politic, the melting pot will have 
stood the supreme test. 


Survey. 40:214. May 25, 1918. 


AMERICANIZATION 


325 


THE AMERICANIZATION MOVEMENT 

Howard C. Hill 

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

The necessity for the Americanization of our foreign popula¬ 
tion may be summarized briefly as follows: 

1. There are 13,000,000 persons of foreign birth and 33,000,- 
000 of foreign origin living in the United States. 

2. Over 100 different foreign languages and dialects are 
spoken in the United States. 

3. Over 1,300 foreign-language newspapers are published in 
the United States, having a circulation estimated at 10,000,000. 

4. Of the persons in the United States 5,000,000 are unable 
to speak English. 

5. Of these persons 2,000,000 are illiterate. 

6. Of the unnaturalized persons 3,000,000 are of military age. 

7. In 1910, 34 per cent of alien males of draft age were un¬ 
able to speak English; that is, about half a million of the reg¬ 
istered alien males between twenty-one and thirty-one years of 
age were unable to understand military orders given in English. 

8. War industries are largely dependent on alien labor: 57 
per cent of the employees in the iron and steel industries east 
of the Mississippi, 61 per cent of the miners of soft coal, 72 per 
cent of workers in the four largest clothing manufacturing 
centers, and 68^ per cent of construction and maintenance work¬ 
ers on the railroads are foreign-born. 

9. Only about 1.3 per cent of adult non-English-speaking 
aliens are reached by the schools. 

10. Many large schools in American cities have been spend¬ 
ing more for teaching German to American children than for 
teaching English and civics to aliens. 

Agencies of Americanization 
I. PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 

The agencies promoting the Americanization of our foreign 
population may be treated under three heads: private and volun¬ 
tary, state and municipal, and federal. 


326 


AMERICANIZATION 


From February to June, 1918, an extensive survey of the 
agencies coming into contact with the foreign-born population of 
the United States was made by Mr Joseph Mayper, under the 
joint auspices of the Committee on Public Information and the 
National Americanization Committee. This survey embraced 
foreign-born, native-born, educational, industrial, and labor 
agencies. It included within its scope racial societies, churches, 
fraternal orders, patriotic and social organizations, chambers of 
commerce, public and private schools, railroads, mines, and in¬ 
dustries of all kinds. 

In order to secure accurate and complete information on 
the location of foreign-language groups and the agencies dealing 
with them, letters of inquiry “were sent to 2,376 Mayors of 
Cities, 1,108 Chambers of Commerce, 2,353 trade organizations, 
48 State Councils of Defense and their Woman’s Divisions, 275 
National Racial, Immigrant, Patriotic, and Philanthropic Socie¬ 
ties, 50 National Religious Organizations, 1,071 Foreign News¬ 
papers, 5,274 Superintendents of Public Schools, 269 Railroads, 
etc.” 

As a result of this inquiry the names of “approximately 
50,000 agencies (foreign, native, industrial, and educational)” 
were obtained. To each of these a registration card was sent 
asking for information on the principal foreign language spoken, 
the kinds of service and work being done with persons of foreign 
origin, and requesting suggestions or plans for the promotion of 
Americanization. About 15,000 of the registration cards were 
filled out and returned. Valuable sources of information not 
investigated, or from which inadequate returns were obtained, 
are labor unions, steamship-ticket agencies, hotel employees, 
churches, and educational institutions. Replies from about 2,000 
schools, libraries, etc., “were generally unsatisfactory,” owing to 
errors in filling out the registration cards, and to the fact that 
“a number of the more important cities have not been heard from 
at all.” 

The survey is analyzed by Mr. Mayper in his preliminary 
report under three main divisions: foreign-born, native-born, and 
industrial groups. The following is a digest of this analysis. 

1. Foreign-born group .—Each of the 33 important racial 
groups revealed by the survey as represented in the United 
States has at least two, and frequently more, national organiza- 


AMERICANIZATION 


327 


tions. These organizations are usually of three general types, 
although they include numberless factions. 

The first and most powerful type is the racial organization 
which exists “for the purpose of maintaining or securing the 
political unity and independence and perpetuation of their native 
land.” An example of this group is the Polish Central Relief 
Committee of America. Some thirteen national Polish organiza¬ 
tions of various kinds, embracing about 4,000,000 Poles, are 
affiliated with it. It engages in various kinds of propaganda for 
the promotion of Polish liberty and is active in recruiting Polish 
regiments for service in Europe and in collecting money for war- 
relief purposes. While some of the organizations affiliated with 
it may have a real interest in American traditions, customs, and 
ideals, the controlling Central Committee is interested only in 
the native land. It makes no effort to Americanize its adherents 
or to promote the welfare of America. 

The second kind of racial organization “has for its main 
purpose the solidarity of the race in America.” The Pan-Hellenic 
Union is typical of this group. It includes a large number of 
the Greeks in America. It manifests little or no interest in this 
country. Such an organization “fosters the language and tradi¬ 
tions and customs of the home country here and urges its for¬ 
eign-born to stay together.” It is therefore antagonistic to 
Americanization. 

The third type of social organization exists “primarily to 
work for America and only secondarily for its native land.” 
Unfortunately such organizations are few in number and weak 
in influence. The Croatian League of the United States, which 
has only about one hundred and fifty branches, may be cited as 
an example. The pro-Austrian element among the Croatians is 
so hostile to this organization that, when some two hundred 
Croatians joined a branch which was being introduced at the 
Cramp shipyards, they “were attacked by other members of this 
race at work in the same plant on the ground that they were dis¬ 
loyal to their native country and were working against their own 
best interest.” As far as the influence of organizations of this 
type extends it is a factor in promoting Americanization. Such 
societies should be encouraged. 

2. Native-born agencies .—The native-born agencies reaching 
our foreign population fall roughly into religious, civic, fraternal, 
and patriotic groups. 


328 


AMERICANIZATION 


Religious bodies such as churches and denominational organi¬ 
zations frequently form the only important means of approach 
to alien women. Hundreds of churches, especially among the 
Lithuanians and the Roumanians, exist chiefly for the foreign- 
language groups and owing to the tremendous power of the 
priests prove most effective means for Americanization projects 
if their co-operation is secured. The mission schools of the 
English-speaking churches are also influential among the persons 
they reach. 

Social and civic organizations such as settlement houses, 
women’s clubs, and home-visiting agencies are active among for¬ 
eign-language groups. These agencies have the welfare of 
America at heart. They are ready and willing to work, but in 
general proceed “in a disorganized and aimless way.” 

Fraternal orders like the Masons, Elks, and others have ac¬ 
complished little, though in some instances they have appointed 
members or committees to undertake propaganda work among 
the foreign-born. In most cases they are eager to co-operate “if 
we will tell them what to do.” If properly guided, these societies 
will prove a tower of strength in promoting Americanism. 

Patriotic organizations like the National Security League and 
the American Defense Society have been active in distributing 
literature and holding public gatherings among the foreign-born. 
Their work is of unquestioned value in promoting patriotism, 
and, “when properly harnessed, should awaken an intelligent 
community attitude toward local foreign-language groups.” 

3. Industrial organizations .—Large numbers of foreign-lan¬ 
guage groups are employed in our industries. Many of these 
alien employees are hostile toward naturalization. The Bethle¬ 
hem Steel Company, for example, states that of its 10,000 for¬ 
eign-born employees “5,600 stated that they were not interested 
in Americanization, as they feared the result of becoming citi¬ 
zens of this country in view of the fact that they desire to return 
to their native land after the war.” In some instances, examples 
of which will be described later, industrial plants are making 
systematic efforts at Americanization and results, so far as avail¬ 
able, are encouraging. In general, however, industrial organiza¬ 
tions “do not know what to do or how to do it, and invariably 
ask us for suggestions and material.” 

In addition to the agencies covered in the Mayper survey, a 
word should be said concerning the Committee for Immigrants 
in America and the National Americanization Committee. Ac- 


AMERICANIZATION 


339 


cording to a memorandum prepared by these organizations for 
the Council of National Defense, “the Committee for Immigrants 
in America is a New York State corporation organized in De¬ 
cember, 1909. It was originally known as the New York State 
Committee and the New York-New Jersey Committee of the 
North American Civic League for Immigrants.” In 1914, when 
its work became national in scope, its name was changed to the 
Committee for Immigrants in America. 

The National Americanization Committee was formed in May, 
1915, at the suggestion of the Committee for Immigrants in 
America “to bring American citizens, foreign-born and native- 
born alike, together on our national Independence Day to cele¬ 
brate the common privileges and define the common duties of all 
Americans, wherever born.” The campaign was so effective that 
106 of the most important cities in America held patriotic cele¬ 
brations and special citizenship receptions in connection with 
their Fourth of July exercises. 

After the campaign so many requests for assistance in Amer¬ 
icanization work and methods continued to come to the Commit¬ 
tee that, in the hope of correlating the efforts of the numerous 
agencies of the country interested in the problem, the Committee 
perfected a permanent organization. 

The Committee is a clearing-house, not a membership organ¬ 
ization. It deals with governmental departments, schools, courts, 
chambers of commerce, churches, women’s clubs, patriotic or¬ 
ganizations, institutions, and groups as units of co-operation—not 
primarily with individuals. It plans and organizes work for local 
organizations, enabling them better to execute their local work. 
It standardizes Americanization work and methods and stim¬ 
ulates thought, interest, and activity. It conducts experiments 
which later are incorporated into governmental, educational, and 
business systems of the country. It derives its support from con¬ 
tributions—not from dues or assessments. Its services and pub¬ 
lications are free. 

During the first six months of its existence the Committee, 
in co-operation with the agencies just mentioned, conducted 
“night-school publicity campaigns in Detroit and Syracuse under 
the auspices of chambers of commerce, and in Wilmington, Dela¬ 
ware; state training courses for teachers, as in New York state 
and Michigan; college training courses for social service in im¬ 
migration, introduced in whole or in part in Yale, Columbia, and 


330 


AMERICANIZATION 


Chicago universities, Beloit and Tufts colleges, and a number of 
other colleges and universities; preliminary surveys in cities to 
serve as the basis of Americanization work; plans and details 
for teaching English and civics; speaker’s bureau and bulletin, 
and Americanization conferences, notably the National Confer¬ 
ence in Philadelphia, June, 1916; prize competitions, among which 
is the housing contest now in progress for the best plans for 
houses especially designed for industrial towns of rapid growth; 
the publication of a quarterly magazine, the Immigrants in 
America Review , for clearing information of Americanization 
work as conducted by agencies public and private throughout the 
country. 

Some time after the entrance of the United States into the 
war the Committee turned over practically' its entire staff and 
equipment to the national government without charge to help in 
furthering Americanization projects. 

In conclusion, the activities of private and voluntary agencies 
may be summarized in the words of Mr. Mayper: 

The foreign-born groups are divided among themselves and 
are not getting the American point of view. 

The foreign-born groups are divided among themselves and are not 
getting the American point of view. 

The native-born agencies are not reaching them and have the utmost 
diversity of standards, methods, and material. Their information is 
distributed without knowledge of the needs and what will fit conditions 
best. 

Industrial plants are here and there giving attention specifically to the 
foreign-language workmen, and, for the most part, they are ready and 
willing to be used, but do not know how to do the work themselves. 

The educational agencies, especially the public schools, are alive to the 
situation, but need the propaganda itself to vitalize their work. 

II. STATE AND MUNICIPAL AGENCIES 

Prior to 1914 the Americanization work of states and munici¬ 
palities was meager. The only state in the Union which had 
made financial provision for the education of immigrants was 
New Jersey. Massachusetts was the only state which had a law 
requiring illiterates up to twenty-one years of age to attend 
school. In certain instances municipalities had endeavored to 
solve the problem by establishing evening classes of various 
kinds. Such classes, generally speaking, were attended by few 
pupils and as a rule were poorly adapted to meet the needs of 
immigrants. 

Since 1914 some progress has been made. By 1916 Massa- 


AMERICANIZATION 


33i 


chusetts and Connecticut had enacted laws requiring the estab¬ 
lishment of evening schools for the education of illiterate minors 
in communities where there are a certain number of such minors 
and under certain other conditions. Where such evening schools 
are established persons to whom the law applies are compelled 
to attend. 

Even under the most favorable circumstances yet existing, 
however, results leave much to be desired. For example in Mas¬ 
sachusetts, the leading state in the Union in eliminating illiteracy, 
there were, according to data available March 1, 1916, “23 com¬ 
munities in the state, each having over 5,000 inhabitants and over 
1,000 foreign whites where no evening schools were found, in 
one of which, according to the census returns for 1910, the for¬ 
eign-born whites comprised 47 per cent of the population.” 

Nine other states containing a large number of foreign-born 
persons had legal provisions which, under certain circumstances, 
permitted the establishment of evening schools for the education 
of persons beyond the compulsory school age. Such legislation 
has not proved effective. In the nine states cited, embracing 1,050 
cities with over 2,500 inhabitants each, 474 of which contained 
over 1,000 foreign-born whites, there was a total of but 207 eve¬ 
ning schools. In other words, less than one-half the cities con¬ 
taining over 1,000 foreign-born whites had provided evening 
schools for immigrant education. 

Let us examine one of the so-called “immigration states” 
more in detail. 

New York in 1910 had a total foreign population of 2,748,011, 
an increase of 44.4 per cent over that of 1900. Of this number, 
597,012 ten years of age and over, were unable to speak English; 
362,065 were illiterate. Alien men between twenty-one and thir¬ 
ty-one years of age who registered for the draft numbered 
264,709. Out of the 2,634,578 ten years of age and over but 131,- 
541 were attending school. 

In 1910 New York City contained 421,951 foreign-born unable 
to speak English; in 1914 only 36,923 were enrolled in evening 
schools—less than one out of every ten. Buffalo contained 118,- 
444 foreign-born, 30,826 of whom were unable to speak English, 
and but 2,622 attended evening schools, that is, about one out of 
every 12. “In 1914 there were no public evening schools what¬ 
soever in 107 urban communities with more than 2,500 inhabi- 


332 


AMERICANIZATION 


tants; 71 of these communities had more than 1,000 foreign-born, 
and three of them had more than 4,000 foreign-born.” Such are 
the conditions in a state in which the law permits the board of 
each school district to maintain free night schools. 

Some of the chief causes for the inefficiency of states and 
municipalities in Americanizing the alien are not hard to discover. 
They are constitutional, financial, and educational in nature. Only 
one state, California, mentions evening schools in its constitution. 
In twenty states the constitutions directly limit the distribution 
of the state school funds to communities on the basis of the 
number of resident children of school age (usually from five or 
six to twenty or twenty-one years). In some of the other states 
a like result takes place by implication. In all such cases the 
financial burden for educating the alien must rest on the local 
community. Such was the situation in 1915 in thirty-seven states 
of the Union. By that year but eleven states had made appro¬ 
priations for the support of evening schools, and these appropria¬ 
tions in many instances were utterly inadequate to meet the finan¬ 
cial needs of the schools. In a few cases the available funds 
were supplemented by fees collected from students, but in such 
instances, especially where the fee was as high as $2.00, the en¬ 
rolment was greatly decreased. As a result the chief purpose of 
the schools was defeated. 

In some cases the State Councils of Defense have been active 
in promoting Americanization work. Leaders in such work and 
examples of their activities follow. 

The State Council Americanization Committee of Connecticut 
was recently changed to a Bureau of Americanization. Indica¬ 
tions are that it will be made a legal state bureau by the next 
legislature. At present the Bureau is financed by the State Board 
of Control, which makes such payments as are found to be neces¬ 
sary by the State Council. Prior to this reorganization the State 
Americanization Committee had distributed throughout Connec¬ 
ticut patriotic literature in eight different foreign languages. 
Successful public meetings of alien groups were also held under 
the auspices of the committee. 

The Woman’s Section of the State Council of Defense has 
been especially active in Illinois. It has organized classes to 
meet at the noon hour among foreign women employed in fac¬ 
tories. Other classes for small groups of foreign women have 


AMERICANIZATION 


333 


been provided in their homes or at a school. These women have 
been reached through lessons in cooking, sewing, and other 
household arts, although the real object of -all the classes has 
been the teaching of English. It has also sent speakers to ex¬ 
plain America’s attitude on the war to various groups of foreign- 
born working-girls. 

The organization of the Americanization work in Massachu¬ 
setts is especially commendable. Under the leadership of a state 
director a committee of over one hundred members composed of 
representatives of all the racial groups in the state, as well as the 
labor, capital, and social-service agencies interested in Americani¬ 
zation, have co-operated in furthering Americanization projects. 
The committee carries on its work through various subcommittees 
each of which has charge of one specific line of activity. One 
important work of the committee was the effective correlation of 
the activities of such organizations as the Y. M. C. A. 

In New Hampshire a notable accomplishment of the State 
Americanization Committee has been the enlistment of the enthu¬ 
siastic co-operation and support of labor unions of the state in 
the work of Americanization. Fairly complete programs for the 
establishment of evening schools and the teaching of the elemen¬ 
tary subjects in English have also been prepared. 

The State Council Director of Americanization of New York 
is also the head of a Division of Immigrant Education of the 
State Board of Education. His principal work up to this time 
has been the formulation of courses of training and education to 
prepare teachers of the foreign-born. This undertaking was au¬ 
thorized by the last legislature. 

Among the municipalities which have taken an active part in 
the work of Americanization, Cleveland easily ranks in the first 
group. The need for such an undertaking was great. In 1914 
Cleveland had over 200,000 foreign-born residents ten years of 
age and over. Of these about 80,000—one-tenth of the entire 
population of the city—were unable to speak English; only 11,383 
of them were enrolled in the schools. But by its efficiency in 
organizing the city’s Americanization work, its attention to alien 
women, its relatively generous financial appropriations for night 
schools, and its success in winning the co-operation of many in¬ 
dustrial plants, Cleveland has made valuable contributions toward 
solving the problem. 


334 


AMERICANIZATION 


Shortly after the entrance of the United States into the war 
there was organized the Mayor’s Advisory War Committee. As 
a special division of the Mayor’s Committee there was formed . 
the Cleveland Americanization Committee. About the same time 
the city Board of Education established a Department of Educa¬ 
tional Extension and Community Centers and appropriated 
$120,000 for its work. These agencies have co-operated in a 
campaign to make Cleveland a “one-language city.” 

As a result of their efforts classes for immigrants were or¬ 
ganized the past year in “public-school buildings, factories, 
parochial schools, churches, public libraries, hospitals, and in fact 
every place within the city” where groups of non-English-speak¬ 
ing people could be reached. The Mayor’s Committee appropri¬ 
ated a sum sufficient to defray all expenses of these special 
classes. Instruction was free. 

After having provided for educational centers in all parts of 
the city the widest publicity was given to the plan. Posters, dis¬ 
play cards, hand bills printed in six languages were distributed 
in the foreign-born communities. Employers offered inducements 
to, and brought pressure upon, their employees to secure their 
attendance at the classes. In addition to the usual night schools 
classes were formed in twenty-two different industrial plants 
and in many other places. Fourteen of the companies “paid for 
either half or,all of the time taken by the classes.” To meet the 
diffidence of adult aliens who did not like to attend the public 
schools classes were organized in thirteen foreign-language 
churches. 

When it is remembered that there are in Cleveland about 
70,000 aliens ten years of age and over who are not enrolled in 
the public schools, and that Cleveland is one of the leaders in 
Americanization work, the meagerness of the results in com¬ 
parison with the great need is startling. The fact is that the 
states and municipalities, through no particular fault of their 
own, have failed to Americanize the adult foreign-born popula¬ 
tion of the United States. 

III. FEDERAL AGENCIES 

Federal activity in Americanizing the foreign-born is of re¬ 
cent origin and limited extent. By established precedents and 


AMERICANIZATION 


335 


legislative and constitutional provisions, control over practically 
all phases of education has until the present time remained in the 
hands of state and local authorities. Federal interest in immi¬ 
grant education has therefore confined itself largely to various 
investigations of the existing facilities for educating the foreign- 
born; to arousing the public mind, by the use of bulletins, news 
items, and other publications, to the need of such facilities; and 
to issuing from time to time material which might be useful in 
carrying on such work. Chief among the federal agencies which 
have been active in this work are the United States Bureau of 
Education, the Council of National Defense, the Committee on 
Public Information, and the Bureau of Naturalization. 

Unfortunately, a conflict of authority, duplication of effort, 
and lack of co-ordination seem to exist among these federal 
agencies. A summary of a few of the events of the last year 
will support the foregoing statement and at the same time will 
reveal the chief federal activities. 

Final Analysis and Recommendations 

Findings .—In conclusion, this survey has revealed the follow¬ 
ing conditions in immigrant education: 

1. Very few of our foreign population are receiving any sys¬ 
tematic training in English and citizenship. 

2. There are a host of agencies eager to co-operate in Amer¬ 
icanization if they but knew what and how to do; many of them, 
owing to ignorance, are engaged in undertakings of little value. 

3. Conflicts, antagonisms, cross-purposes, duplication of ef¬ 
fort, and inefficiency characterize the activities of many of the 
agencies now in the field. 

4. Existing courses of instruction in citizenship are inade¬ 
quate in content and method to produce the best results in Amer¬ 
icanization; some of them, however, contain excellent features. 

Recommendations .—In view of present conditions the follow¬ 
ing action should be taken: 

1. There should be a centralizing federal agency with power 
to direct and co-ordinate the work of the different agencies en¬ 
gaged in Americanization. 

2. A standard course of instruction in citizenship, embracing 


336 


AMERICANIZATION 


th« fundamental political, economic, and social phases of Amer¬ 
ican life, should be perfected by or through this centralizing 
agency. This course should be planned so as to permit such . 
variations as are necessary to fit it to the needs of different com¬ 
munities. A collection of all the courses now used in immigrant 
instruction would be helpful to anyone attempting to organize 
such a course. 

3. Special instruction should be provided in normal schools, 
colleges, and universities to fit teachers for the work of Amer¬ 
icanization. 

4. Adequate financial appropriations for a thoroughgoing 
campaign in Americanization should be made by Congress and by 
the legislatures of the states. 

From article in The American Journal of Sociology. 24:609-42. May, 

1919. 


RACIAL RELATIONS IN AMERICA 

Frances Rumsey 

The Department of the Interior is selecting for each race a 
racial representative, to act in concert with it in all matters which 
concern the racial, educational, and industrial activities of his 
own people resident in America. This representative becomes 
the logical means of communication between this group and au¬ 
thoritative American action. He is in constant touch with his 
own press, with the educational needs of his people, with then 
organizations, whether social, religious, or fraternal, with their 
industrial conditions, and with their various conferences and con¬ 
ventions throughout the country. He traces the origin ana 
strength of their factional differences and difficulties; he urges 
the learning of English as a means of development and self-pro¬ 
tection, and investigates the conditions and facilities regarding 
this; he creates an intelligent appreciation of naturalization; he 
sees that his people have adequate representation on industrial 
committees; he keeps in constant contact with the growth of 
their constructive needs. This representative has, as advisory to 
him, a conference group of twelve members of his own race. 
These men are chosen from as wide a field as possible; they 
include representation of educational, literary, journalistic, indus¬ 
trial, commercial, and labor interests, and keep the representative 


AMERICANIZATION 


337 


constantly informed of the growth and changes of opinion in 
their own groups. This means a clear and continuous flow 01 
information not from various scattered sources, but from these 
sources to one central and uniting point. 

The first task of each representative, on his assumption of 
office and after establishing relations with his foreign language 
press and his own racial organizations, is to prepare for the 
Government a statement of the present status of his race in 
their country of origin, both historically traced and in the forms 
of its present existence. This statement is made from the points 
of view of, first, culture, by a study of their typical traditions, 
beliefs, arts, and literature; second, economics, by analysis and 
computation of the bases of their economic production; third, 
science, by investigation of their contribution to science; fourth, 
political science, by comparison between their social relations, the 
forms of their institutions and their political ideals. There is 
thus recorded not only the past achievements of this particular 
race in these directions, but there is also predicated and made 
practical the probable lines along which this people can most 
freely develop and the ways in which their genius is most likely 
to express itself successfully. This statement is followed by a 
technical one, which defines the present status of those of the 
race resident in America, where and how they are settled, where 
and how employed, and how far their integration into American 
life has proceeded. 

Half the circle is thus completed. An intelligent and author¬ 
itative source of information is established, one which will by 
the very terms of its existence be constantly enlarged and en¬ 
riched. It is possible to trace not only the needs of the foreign 
race, but the historical and traditional evidence as to why those 
needs exist; to understand the instinct of segregation here and 
the instinct of disassociation there; and to lay the way to repair 
misunderstandings and antagonisms, as well as some of those 
ignorances which have forced men and women into employment 
for which they were temperamentally unfitted and in which, for 
this reason, they often signally failed. The third statement of 
each representative goes a step further; it finally rounds both 
the investigation and the operating principle. This is a report 
on those ways and means which will best interpret America to 


338 


AMERICANIZATION 


his own race; which will best give them American standards and 
best coordinate their own development with that of their adopted 
country. In dealing with all questions between the two peoples' 
there are thus established the methods of analysis and compari¬ 
son before any attempt is made at selection and application. 
Points of contact are traced which will contribute to reciprocal 
integration and fusion. Sympathetic traditions and tendencies 
of thought are defined in American culture; there is a statement 
of such processes in the foreign economic production as can be 
used and developed in American production; there is mutual 
study of such special characteristics of both peoples as determine 
the forms of their scientific achievement, and an application, 
wherever possible, of this knowledge to American science: and 
there is tested the identity between the bases of social relations 
in both nations, and between the function and opention of their 
political institutions. 

The reciprocity which is thus created is complete not only 
between a single race and America, but between the various for¬ 
eign races in America themselves. Some of the drama of the 
constant American recreation plays through this amalgamation. 
For the first time these races see one another under larger terms 
than the terms of factional difference. They have to measure, 
because of new frictions and new stimulations, the terms of their 
individual responsibility. Those things which the foreign-born 
looked upon in the older world as utopian principles here become 
the society’s rightful contribution to every one: what he re¬ 
ceived as charity has here become for each man a practical right; 
what he formerly claimed as benevolence he can now insist on 
as a basic justice. From the American side the gain is limitless. 
It is not only the gain for industrial and commercial life, of the 
inventive genius, the high operative practicality, the thrift and 
the steady capability of the foreign-born. There is a growth 
even more fundamental. In culture there is apprehension of the 
texture of another national mind; in economics there is the dis¬ 
covery of differences and identities of values; in science there 
is the establishment of like terms of definition; and in political 
science there is created a like sense of the coherent development 
of peoples. This means nothing less than the education and 
application of America’s sense of composition. 

Racial Relations in America . Century 97:781*6. April, 1919. 


AMERICANIZATION 


339 


INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIP 

Frances A. Kellor 

America has no policy as to whether it will attempt to retain 
its immigrants and if so what the methods will be or whether 
it will bid them Godspeed, adding as much as possible to their 
equipment to help them in the new task. Every immigrant who 
goes back could have been made a missionary of the American 
spirit, an advocate of American business, a salesman of Amer¬ 
ican goods, as well as a champion of democracy. Instead, the 
indifference and neglect with which they have been treated has 
given many no real love for the American brand of Democracy. 
Today, allies though they are, they are being exploited by steam¬ 
ship ticket agents who are selling them tickets on vessels whose 
sailings are unknown, and no provision is being made for their 
care at the seaports, where they may wait days if not weeks. 
They will arrive on the coast with their savings, with their faces 
turned eastward with the hope of seeing those from whom they 
have not heard during the war, and America will permit them 
to be exploited as they leave her just as she did when they first 
came to her. Every such tale told on the other side dims the 
glory of the Americans who fought in France. 

These men and women will go back because of loyalty to 
the suffering home country, to see what has happened, to settle 
up family matters, to help the home country and to work out 
democratic ideals of government in a country free at last. They 
will be men of position and leadership in their home land. It is 
of vital and of great significance what America gives them to 
take back with them; and what their last impressions are. 
These depend primarily upon what their experience and life and 
treatment in this country have been. 

This nation has no single policy which reaches all of its im¬ 
migrants and which surely equips them to interpret America to 
their native homes; it has no official programme of organization 
for safeguarding them while here or of insuring a safe or 
sympathetic departure. It has none of the courtesy of a host; 
it has not the powers of a despot. If America were to decide 
tomorrow that she would make efforts to keep her immigrants 


340 


AMERICANIZATION 


and interest them in America, along what lines would she pro¬ 
ceed? Americanization is the readiest answer, summed up in 
most people’s minds by the teaching of English and the acquire¬ 
ment of citizenship papers. Valuable as these are as channels, 
they will not be enough to hold the immigrant nor to attract new 
ones. With the disbanding of war agencies, and the taking off 
of war pressure, the country has still to find a unifying principle 
of race amalgamation and to find what it is that creates a volun¬ 
tary allegiance to a new country. When the basic principles of 
Americanization are reached, they will not be the various cam¬ 
paigns for this or that thing that seems good for the moment. 
They will be identity of interest in the economic and social and 
political fields and we shall deal with questions like these:— 

Can race superiority and prejudices be eliminated and all 
races be given recognition and an equal opportunity in America ? 

How can immigrants be given a land interest and a home 
stake to compete with the call of the soil of their native land ? 

How can the worker be given recognition and his talents be 
utilized and the discriminations in working and living conditions 
and handicaps be eliminated? 

How can the distance between the guarantees of the Con¬ 
stitution and its practical application in the daily lives of men 
be shortened, and political ideals be fully realized? 

Shall the immigrant who tries to buy a home continue to find 
himself the victim of a colonization scheme to sell sand flats or 
in the meshes of the installment plan? But one State in Amer¬ 
ica now safeguards his savings in private banks. 

Industrial demobilization as well as military demobilization 
present interesting immigration questions: Does America intend 
that the immigrant shall return to his colony and section and 
ghetto? Is the bunk-house on construction work and the over¬ 
turned box car his future home? Does he continue a dago and 
a wop? Is he to be discriminated against in future employment? 
Will the foreign-born soldier return to the same footing in his 
family and in his town when he lays aside his uniform ? 

To these and a hundred other demobilization questions which 
affect particularly the foreign-born in America, there is no ready 
answer. These, too, are questions to which the world will await 
an answer. America must realize that in becoming a world 
Power and in deciding situations abroad, she opens the door to 


AMERICANIZATION 


34i 


far greater interest, accountability and influence upon her affairs 
at home, especially when these involve many hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of subjects of foreign countries. How they shall be 
treated may no longer be her own affair. It concerns Europe 
vitally and may one say as consistently as America is concerned 
in how Europe treats its various nationalities. 

Have we emerged from this war with a real international 
sense which we are willing to put to the following test: Shall 
immigration be considered only as a labor matter as in the past 
or does America recognize her dependence upon other races for 
elements of fusion and contributions of body, mind and spirit, 
essential to the future development of a great people and a great 
country? 

America will not attract immigrants upon the old terms of 
ideals, jobs and wages. America will have the competition of 
countries eager for manpower and having as much to offer. 
Making democracy safe for the world relieves America of its 
monopoly and men will be able to realize in their own lands that 
which they once crossed the seas to find in America. Foreign 
countries by anti-emigration laws and other measures will en¬ 
deavor to keep their manpower, they will direct it when they can 
to their colonies. Canada and South America have more to offer 
in adventure and lands and opportunities than America. This 
country also faces competition with the most frugalized and dis¬ 
ciplined people of Europe and must teach thrift and lower cost 
production—a course not popular with a people used to lavish 
expenditure. Conditions today raise new questions as to how 
immigration may be best selected and how much of the revolu¬ 
tionary Bolsheviki element can be absorbed here. It is becoming 
clear that the old haphazard way of interesting immigrants to 
come here by leaving it to the enterprise of steamship companies, 
and of labor agencies, and to individuals to send for their coun¬ 
trymen will not suffice, if America believes that her future pros¬ 
perity and power depend on not only immigration but immigra¬ 
tion selected for her needs and satisfying her standards. 

I am far from saying there has been no improvement in 
these conditions. Everywhere there is evidence of changing rela¬ 
tionships. I am saying, however, that nowhere can men who 
are struggling with these questions find a guiding principle 
clearly enunciated in law and backed by authority. In Washing- 


342 


AMERICANIZATION 


ton, Government bureaus nullify the work of each other; States 
contradict each other by statute, and organizations multiply, all 
bent upon some specific phase of work. Education lags while 
imposition grows; standards yield to expedients; and incentives 
are killed by repression. America’s voice is not raised clearly 
against it; and few laws are enacted powerfully to counteract 
it. Men feeling these inequalities seek the great adventure in 
other lands. 

America enters the international councils today with this 
equipment for dealing with its races in America: 

An immigration law providing for the restriction or admis¬ 
sion of aliens, based upon self-defense, governed by an economic 
point of view, and containing none of the broader principles of 
selection which the war has revealed. Will it be amended as be¬ 
comes a world Power and possible member of a League of Na¬ 
tions, or will it remain the provincial expression of a people 
afraid of labor competition? 

A naturalization law, whose citizenship does not protect the 
naturalized citizen in his native land; which imposes hardships in 
the name of standards, based on local geographical lines; and 
which is an antiquated instrument in its expression of the dig¬ 
nity and requirements of citizenship, as well as in its cumbersome 
and unstandardized methods of operation. Many injustices, like 
withholding the opportunity to earn a living, are committed in 
its name, and many a privilege is entrenched along with its 
democracy. Shall it be amended to give international citizenship 
which shall be good the world over and having but one meaning 
and standard at home? 

State laws dealing with the most intricate questions of na¬ 
tionality exhibit contradictions and inequalities. In one State 
men were forbidden to pray in a foreign language; in another 
aliens may not be employed as barbers; in another aliens may 
not own a dog; in nine States men with first papers can vote. 
There are indications that the legislatures of 1919 will attempt 
to settle questions of loyalty and of freedom in their own way. 
Shall there be a uniform policy for States in accord with na¬ 
tional and international agreements, with Federal aid to the 
States having great problems of education and assimilation, or 
shall we continue to confuse the world and do injustice to the 
alien as he passes from State to State? 


AMERICANIZATION 


343 


We are not agreed upon whether this shall be a compulsory 
English language nation; and if so under what conditions other 
languages may be spoken and under what conditions the foreign 
press shall continue, and within what terms nationalistic societies 
may flourish. Shall we have a compulsory English language law 
and a clear enunciation of where we stand on these matters or 
shall we drift, increasing bitterness and misunderstanding in our 
own country and leading eventually to complication abroad? 

America unconsciously permits exploitation which necessitates 
that foreign governments shall protect their own people here. 
Shall there be a law regulating the activities of private employ¬ 
ment agencies doing an interstate business, of private bankers 
covering both deposits and transmission of money abroad, of 
colonization and land schemes involving as they do interstate 
transactions; of steamship ticket agents performing a variety of 
international services as well as selling tickets? 

We now deal with immigration with little knowledge of con¬ 
ditions abroad. Our own official knowledge of peoples in Amer¬ 
ica is based on a decennial census. The results are not ordinar¬ 
ily available until they are two or three years old. Is not the 
world moving too fast and our own country changing too rapidly 
to consider people as statistics? Shall we continue to do this or 
shall we base our selection upon the reports of experts abroad 
who will advise accurately and impartially of foreign conditions 
including movements of population, conditions of unrest, etc.? 
Is it not just as important to know manpower conditions and 
tendencies as to know trade conditions and not through self-in¬ 
terested and political but through scientific and non-partisan 
channels? Shall we find no better way of keeping in touch with 
the strangers in our gates than in aggregate masses of statistics 
several years old? 

From Immigration in Reconstruction. North American Review. 209: 
199-208. February, 1919. 


THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

The attitude of the American Library Association toward the 
work of Americanization (or “Citizenship”) is shown in the fol¬ 
lowing statement, which has been officially adopted by its Ex¬ 
ecutive board with the recommendation that it be given wide dis- 


344 


AMERICANIZATION 


tribution as indicative of the methods which librarians have suc¬ 
cessfully pursued. 

A statement of things which have been done by libraries to • 
promote citizenship: 

1. They have gained the adult foreigner’s confidence and 
good will. 

2. They have educated themselves in his needs, prejudices, 
racial characteristics and native responses. 

3. They have afforded him democratic, hospitable places 
—libraries—in which the usefulness and the recreational 
quality of books, magazines and newspapers have been dis¬ 
covered by him and to him. 

4. They have cooperated with established organizations, local, 
state and federal, for his education. 

5. They have instituted new ways of procedure in helping 
him, such as the use of the foreign language press as a medium 
of instruction; of foreign language lectures for teaching illiter¬ 
ates; of neighborhood classes for teaching citizenship, English 
language and home-making. 

6. They have given or promoted homelands exhibits and 
municipal parties at which respect and admiration have been 
shown for his handiwork and customs with an increase of his 
own self-respect. 

These things they have shown to be practical even though 
they have been obliged chiefly through lack of funds to discon¬ 
tinue them as soon as their utility was established. Furthermore 
they have discovered a dearth of such informational material in 
foreign languages as would quickly educate a reader in Amer¬ 
ica’s ideals and give him strong incentives to learn English and 
to throw in his lot wholeheartedly with this country. 

They have urged federal government bureaus, publishing 
houses and school systems to cause to be printed in foreign lan¬ 
guages and to be made immediately available for his instruction, 
such information, as he and his family need to help them to be¬ 
come happy and desirable Americans. 

They have established hundreds of foreign branch libraries 
in congested quarters of towns and cities; and have sought out 
and listed the best books available in many different immigrant 
languages, and have simplified methods of making the same 
quickly available. 


AMERICANIZATION 


345 


They have, in short, while held by their libraries’ daily ex¬ 
acting routine, learned much of new peoples and new languages, 
that they might make their libraries more valuable to foreign¬ 
speaking residents, thus making, in some cases, their branches 
into neighborhood information bureaus. 

American libraries have not only carried out work as above 
described for foreign-speaking residents; but have also done 
like work to aid persons, old and young, who were born in this 
country but had not been, by home, school or other training, 
properly equipped for citizenship. 

This statement was drawn for the American Library Association 
Committee on Enlarged Program and adopted by them, prior to its 
adoption by the Executive Board. The statement has been furnished 
for this Handbook by Mr. George B. Utley, Secretary of the Association. 

AMERICANIZING OUR FOREIGN-BORN 

Royal Dixon 

AUTHOR OF "AMERICANIZATION/' ETC. 

Unity is the watchword of civilization to-day, and in America 
we are taking practical steps to nationalize our people of numer¬ 
ous races and tongues. One of the most patriotic and successful 
endeavors in this direction is being accomplished by the League 
of Foreign Born Citizens. 

This organization came into being in response to a natural 
law. It has grown spontaneously, as a result of a demand not 
previously filled. Its origin lay in the fundamental desire of 
every human being to realize himself more fully, and through 
recognition of the fact that this can only be accomplished by 
banding together for a discussion of common problems, a shar¬ 
ing of common joys and sorrows, and a stimulation of common 
ideals of social service and human brotherhood. 

The League was founded in December, 1913, by Nathaniel 
Phillips, a lawyer, a product of the New York Public Schools, 
of the College of the City of New York and of the New York 
University. Mr. Phillips is himself foreign born, having come 
from Russian Poland thirty odd years ago, while less than a 
year old. His foreign ancestry, together with his American train¬ 
ing and his innate appreciation of democracy’s ideals, gave him 
that insight, sympathy and understanding which eminently fit him 
to be the head of such an organization,—a civic leader and social 
interpreter. 


346 


AMERICANIZATION 


When the idea of helping the immigrant first took definite 
form, neither Mr. Phillips nor the four men associated with him 
believed that the little organization they started would so soon 
win national recognition and become a force in the nation to 
sustain and support it in an hour of world crisis. 

It was in a little room on East Third Street in New York 
City that the League started. Its national offices are now at 303 
Fifth Avenue; its Downtown branch is at 95 Second Avenue 
(been designated as one of the centres for War Information). 
It has a Staten Island and a Yorkville branch and travelling 
branches at various settlement houses and community centers. 
During the first year its membership grew from five to five 
hundred and at the present time it numbers more than 3,000. 
Good moral character is the only requisite for admission to mem¬ 
bership. 


Helped all Races, Creeds and Classes 

When it started, enthusiasm and idealism were the League’s 
sole assets. Over the door hung this sign: 

Are you an American Citizen? 

If Not, Why Not? 

We Will Help You, Free, To Become a Citizen. 

Come In. You Are Welcome. 

It was displayed in three languages. Daily crowds passed the 
little room on East Third Street before a single inquirer dared 
venture in. Many interested ones had passed it by, fearful lest 
it was another unscrupulous enterprise in disguise, aiming at 
private profit by exploiting the simple confidence and civic inter¬ 
est of foreign-born residents. That such practices were possible 
reflects upon our national and municipal consideration of those 
who come to our shores seeking to become an integral part of 
our civic and social structure. It emphasizes a neglect in a mat¬ 
ter of the utmost national importance. In the past we have left 
the newly arrived immigrant unattended and unaided. We had 
left him at the mercy of an industrial system which dealt with 
the foreigner perfunctorily, utilizing his man power but giving 
him little opportunity for the cultivation of his human aspira¬ 
tions. 


AMERICANIZATION 


347 


Ours is a nation of many races, creeds, classes and contacts. 
It has been formed of the free born spirits of the world, come 
here seeking opportunity. We are dedicated to the ideal of 
equality of opportunity for all. We are a commonwealth in 
which the greatest good can be realized only when every in¬ 
dividual member of the body politic is exercising, to his best 
and fullest capacities, the faculties of head and hands and heart. 
Knowing this we have, nevertheless, in the past, done prac¬ 
tically nothing to properly nationalize our newly arrived immi¬ 
grants. 

The objects of the League of the Foreign Born Citizens helps 
carry out this great opportunity in our national life. Its object 
is directly and indirectly to do effective service in a field both 
officially and unofficially long neglected. 


The Need of a Better Understanding Recognized 

There had existed many organizations formed for the pur¬ 
pose of aiding those newly arrived at our shores; but their 
efforts were centered upon facilitating the immigrant’s entrance 
into America and rendering easier his first days in the new coun¬ 
try. There their function ceased; and at that point the League 
takes up the problem of interpreting America to the newcomer 
and assisting him in his social and civic assimilation. 

The League recognized that there is great need of a better 
understanding not only between the citizens and the newcomers 
but also between the younger and the older generations of the 
immigrants themselves. The younger element becomes Amer¬ 
icanized more quickly. This often leads to impatience and in¬ 
tolerance on the part of the younger citizens; they lose sight of 
their parents’ viewpoint and get out of sympathy with their gen¬ 
eral attitude toward the questions of the day. They find it diffi¬ 
cult to readily conform their parents to new moulds. 

To breach this gulf and to foster a better understanding, the 
League is organizing social groups, giving lectures, and educating 
the foreign-born through the columns of the press. The work is 
divided into a number of bureaus, and these are conducted by 
volunteer workers who give their service without any remunera¬ 
tion whatever. 

The Bureau of Naturalization attends to applicants for citi- 


348 


AMERICANIZATION 


zenship, informing them concerning questions of eligibility, and 
all other details pertaining to taking out first papers and becom¬ 
ing an American citizen. The Naturalization work is divided • 
into three grades. Applicants are assisted in the preparation of 
their citizenship papers; taught to read and write English and by 
arrangement with the County Clerk’s office, their blanks are 
stamped with the signature of the League, and the naturalization 
clerks readily issue the official first papers to applicants presenting 
the stamped blanks. Applicants have, by this means, saved hours 
and often days when they come to the County Clerk’s office with 
their blanks fully prepared for them at the League. 

Applicants for second papers are aided in the preparation of 
the blanks for their second papers and are assisted in obtaining 
their Certificate of Arrival. 

Classes in the history and principles of our government are 
held. Applicants are instructed in the meaning of our Constitu¬ 
tion and are taught to answer questions necessary for a proper 
appreciation of American institutions. 

How to Help the Foreign Born 

The League found an appalling inertness on the part of a vast 
number of immigrants toward taking the steps necessary for be¬ 
coming citizens. The reasons were of course largely the inac¬ 
cessibility of the naturalization courthouses and the time con¬ 
sumed in the making of the preliminary blanks at the Court. 
But more than these actual obstacles was the vague belief that 
the process itself was so difficult to understand and to overcome. 

The foreign born are getting to know of the existence of the 
League and to understand that it welcomes prospective citizens; 
that it solves doubtful problems with regard to eligibility; that it 
saves them time and needless worry. In short, the very existence 
of the League has aroused citizenship activity amongst the 
people. The records contain the names of a number of appli¬ 
cants who have been in this country fifteen years, and some of 
them as long as twenty years, without having taken steps toward 
naturalization. They are now on their way toward citizenship. 

The League hopes to bring about in New York City a method 
which is proving successful in Los Angeles, Cal., whereby great 
saving in time for prospective citizens and for the courts can be 
accomplished. The plans are as follows: 


AMERICANIZATION 


349 


The members of the Naturalization Classes are to receive a 
diploma from the League at the close of their course of instruc¬ 
tion. This diploma will be accepted by the Courts as evidence of 
satisfactory knowledge of the Constitution and the history of 
our government, and will be accepted by the Judge in lieu of the 
examinations to which applicants are now subjected. 

Securing Important Legislation 

The Public Welfare work of the League is in charge of the 
Committee on Laws and Legislation. This Committee assisted in 
defeating objectionable features in the Federal Immigration bill. 
It has been instrumental in changing the New York State Law 
which prohibited non-citizens from laboring on public work, so 
they may be enabled to secure positions in grades of work for 
which citizens are generally unsuited; it has helped to fight the 
movement to curtail the free public library system; it has ob¬ 
tained from the City Government the adoption of a policy where¬ 
by peddlers were permitted, for a two-week period prior to the 
Passover and Tabernacle Holy Days, wider privileges for vend¬ 
ing their wares throughout the city; it has been in the forefront 
in the fight to continue the Free Floating Baths in New York 
City; it has been aiding in the efforts to extend the Widow’s 
Pension Law to the widows of those who have not yet attained 
full citizenship; it was amongst the most active of the organiza¬ 
tions that helped defeat legislation aimed at weakening the New 
York State Tenement House Law. 

Some time ago at Cooper Union, the League conducted a 
public “Experience Meeting,” at which the heads of the New 
York City Government told what they had already accomplished 
and what they plan to do. A leading New York paper comment¬ 
ing editorially, said, “This meeting under the auspices of the 
League of Foreign Born Citizens, is said to be the first of its 
kind ever arranged in New York City. It is an interesting at¬ 
tempt to bring an administration face to face with the public it 
serves.” 


Helping the Foreigner to Americanisation 

In the great Loyalty Parade of July Fourth the only march¬ 
ing group that was not distinctly racial was that of the League. 


350 


AMERICANIZATION 


Theirs was the only organization that paraded as such and the 
only one that typified the unification of our country. There were' 
twenty-two different nationalities in the unit, men and women 
who had become citizens since America entered the war. 

Further practical efforts toward creating a national and inter¬ 
national unity of ideals of political freedom is exemplified in the 
fact that the original call for the celebration of Bastile Day in 
New York was planned and issued by ten organizations of which 
the League was one. 

Open-air meetings are held once a week. At important street 
comers throughout New York large crowds are addressed by 
members of the League and by others interested in the work. 
The people are informed concerning the objects of the League, 
and are encouraged to come to the headquarters and to send 
their friends who are desirous of becoming citizens. Public 
questions in which the League is interested are discussed in open 
forum, and the speaker endeavors to answer questions put to him 
by his hearers. Members of the campaign committee circulate 
amongst the crowd, taking down the name and addresses of 
those who desire additional information concerning the League. 
Those who signify their interest receive a letter within a day or 
two thereafter, inviting them to call at the headquarters. 

Toward the close of each month the League tenders a recep¬ 
tion to those who have become citizens within the current 
month. The New Citizens each receive cards of invitation for 
themselves and their friends. They are addressed by the Justices 
of the Supreme Court who presided in the Court when they were 
inducted into Citizenship. In addition to these Justices, other 
men and women, eminent in the life of the community, are 
speakers. A musical entertainment is also provided. The League 
publishes, in foreign languages, for distribution amongst prospec¬ 
tive citizens, leaflets and manuals to help interpret to them the 
spirit of American institutions. 

The League has come to be recognized as an active factor in 
civic and communal affairs. Its work is gradually telling and 
government officials frequently call upon this organization to aid 
them in public causes. The League is arousing, in thousands of 
people, hitherto indifferent to public questions, a civic conscious¬ 
ness. 


Americanising our Foreign-born. Forum. 60:444-52. October, 1918. 


AMERICANIZATION 


35i 


WHAT EVERY AMERICANIZATION WORKER 
SHOULD KNOW 

1. The background of the life of the foreign-born. 

a Geography of the native land 
b Main features in its history 
c Social and political life 
d Religious life 
e Education 
f Racial characteristics 

2. The reasons for coming to America. 

a Economic 
b Social 
c Political 
d Religious 
e Military 

3. The means by which the foreign-born may best satisfy the 

longing which brought him here. 
a Finding the work he is best fitted to do 
b Learning the language of America 
c Becoming acquainted with American laws, customs 
and standards of living 
d Becoming a citizen 

e Learning to know the outside agencies which can help 
him and enlarge his vision 

f Cooperating with the native American to promote and 
uphold real Americanism 

4. The most successful ways and means of teaching English 

and the principles of American citizenship to the 
foreign-born. 

5. The value and beauty of all that the foreign-born brings 

us in his “gifts of mind, heart and hand.” 

6. The ideals of our democracy as set forth in the constitu¬ 

tion. 

a Political life; “A government of the people, by the 
people and for the people” 
b Social life; “A man’s a man for a’ that” 
c Industrial life; “A square deal” 
d Religious life; “Freedom to worship God” 


352 


AMERICANIZATION 


7. The ideals of our democracy as determined by the united 

purpose of foreign-born and native-born to create a 
new and better America. 

8. The necessity of the foreign-born joining hands with the 

native-born to make these ideals of our democracy a 
living reality. 

From Immigrant Education. New York State University Bulletin, 
p. 3. March x, 1919. 

AN IMMIGRANT’S PROGRAM OF 
AMERICANIZATION 

Members of the class, 1 in the course of the week, formed a 
committee to outline a tangible Americanization program on lines 
such as they conceived most in keeping with their own ideals. 
This program is here given in full: 

1. Similar courses on immigration in other cities, given not 
entirely by Americans, but also by immigrant leaders of broadest 
sympathies. Such courses might be given, with especial profit, in 
universities, university extension classes, normal schools and high 
schools. 

2. Courses on internationalism in the public schools, in which 
the history of other peoples shall be sketched more sympathetic¬ 
ally and fair-mindedly than is usual, in which translations of the 
best in other literatures shall be read, in which the political, 
economic and social problems of other nations shall be studied, 
in which international societies (scientific, socialistic, capitalistic, 
etc.) and means of international communication, such as the 
Postal Union, shall be studied. 

3. That such organizations as the Cosmopolitan Clubs in our 
universities be cherished through these troublesome and difficult 
times. The serious problems of reconstruction and international 
relations will demand of our children and present student bodies 
greater understanding of foreign peoples than we have had. 

4. That ministers be encouraged to give series of addresses 
on comparative religion; better still, that they have those ad¬ 
dresses given by adherents of the various religious beliefs. 

5. That our magazines be encouraged in the printing of 
translations of the best articles in the current publications of 
other countries. 

1 Of foreign-born leaders lecturing on immigration under the auspices 
of th« Immigration Department of the Y. W. C. A., of San Francisco. 


AMERICANIZATION 


353 


6. That congenial, informal, discussional groups be formed 
of Americans and representatives of other nationalities, and our 
homes be thrown open socially to foreigners of social status and 
intellectual power and interests similar to our own. 

7. That pictures and descriptive material be furnished some 
of our daily papers, stressing the ideals with which the immi¬ 
grants come, and the difficulties we leave, or put, in the way of 
their realization, to aid in overcoming the prevalent American 
sense of superiority. 

8. That industrial leaders be encouraged to see the financial 
gain to themselves of teaching foreigners such English as will 
enable them to understand simple directions, and such acquaint¬ 
ance with the tools and aims of the business as will make them 
more intelligent workers. 

9. That, in general, an attempt be made to keep from re¬ 
ducing the contribution of the immigrant to terms of mere 
muscle. 

10. That more “home teachers,” like those provided for by 
the California law, be supplied for teaching English to foreign 
women in their homes, accompanied by assistants who can take 
care of the children while the mothers are studying. 

11. That the foreign language press be given encouragement 
in printing articles on the various free educational and artistic 
facilities available in each community. 

12. That public libraries add to their collection of books in 
foreign languages, and to their translations into English of the 
best works from other countries. 

13. That we see to it that it can no longer be said that the 
only American acquaintances of the immigrant are the cheap 
politician and real estate shark. 

THE AMERICAN HOUSE 
Harry L. Senger 

EDITOR THE SCHOOL INDEX, CINCINNATI 

Long before we entered the world conflict Supt. Randall J. 
Condon of the Cincinnati public schools, noting the meager at¬ 
tendance at classes in English for foreigners, determined to begin 

From article in Survey. 40:596-7. August 24, 1918. 


354 


AMERICANIZATION 


an active-campaign looking toward the more rapid assimilation 
of the immigrant population. The American House may be re¬ 
garded as a monument to his constructive enterprise. 

Investigation showed that beside the public schools two other 
organizations were interested in the Americanization problem, the 
Chamber of Commerce and the Immigrant Welfare Association. 
Through the efforts of Superintendent Condon the latter two 
societies were brought to combine their activities with those of 
the schools as represented by the Department of Civic and Voca¬ 
tional Service. The merger resulted in the formation of an 
Americanization Executive Committee under the chairmanship of 
the superintendent and consisting of two members from each of 
the three agencies named and a seventh member representing 
the foreign element. Recently there have been added to the com¬ 
mittee a representative of the women’s organizations and one 
from the Hamilton County Council of National Defense. After 
several months' careful search throughout the country, Chairman 
Condon found a person fitted by nature and training for the post 
of director of the committee’s work—a foreign born citizen, a 
fervid patriot yet full of sympathy for the immigrant, a man of 
inexhaustible energy, George Eisler, formerly editor of a dem¬ 
ocratic newspaper in Hungary and for many years engaged in 
various kinds of social welfare work in the United States. 

For a whole year Mr. Eisler, occupying cramped quarters in 
the rooms of the Board of Education, has been planning the 
American House. Within this time the property selected has 
been remodeled at a cost of $10,000 granted from the war chest 
of the Hamilton County Council of National Defense. From 
the budget commission of the Council of Social Agencies there 
was obtained an appropriation for maintenance of $9,000 for this 
year and $13,720 for the next. The building is fifty-nine years 
old and belongs to the Bellamy Storer estate. It is the center of 
a population of 8,000 Rumanians, 5,000 Hungarians, 1,500 Ser¬ 
bians and a large number of old German settlers. 

In his office on the second floor Mr. Eisler has filed away a 
collection of 12,500 cards giving important data concerning every 
foreigner whose children attend the public schools. Another file 
contains cards relating to every person in Cincinnati who has 
taken out first citizenship papers since 1916. These cards are 
arranged according to nationalities and by means of tabs may be 
redistributed according to wards, consecutive street numbers or 


AMERICANIZATION 


355 


alphabetical sequence of names. On another group of cards 1,500 
local societies beside 175 foreign societies are listed. 

The most striking thing about the furnishings of the American 
House is not their evident beauty, but the fact that they were 
secured through the cooperation of various women’s organiza¬ 
tions. Thus the director’s office has been furnished by Ruth 
Lodge and the Woman's Club; the library by the Women Teach¬ 
ers’ Association and the Girls’ Friendly Society; the study room 
by the Woman’s City Club; the quiet games room (for check¬ 
ers, chess, dominoes and billiards) by the Council of Jewish 
Women; the women’s rest room by the Woman’s Catholic Fed¬ 
eration ; the kitchen and lunch room with full equipment by the 
Federation of Mothers’ Clubs. Many other organizations have 
contributed. 

Since hardly one building out of five hundred in the vicinity 
contains a bathtub, excellent bathing facilities are provided by 
the American House. Attached to the tubs and showers are anti¬ 
scalding and anti-chilling devices. The fire under the boilers is 
automatically shut off when the water has reached 130 degrees. 
Such safeguards are required because of the foreigner’s ignor¬ 
ance of the comforts and conveniences of the average American 
home. Every room has a separate electric switch so that the en¬ 
tire building may not at any one time be plunged into darkness 
with resultant panic. Various patriotic societies have donated 
the furnishings for the auditorium which will seat 300 people. 
In it are a moving picture machine and a victrola. Suitable cur¬ 
tains provide a stage effect. In a park beside the house there are 
benches under a pergola for a shady retreat on sultry afternoons. 
A society of Rumanians has contributed $75 (one dollar for each 
member) for a statue of Liberty to be placed in the park. 

Four conditions, according to Director Eisler, are required 
before the American House will be able to achieve its mis¬ 
sion. These conditions, now in process of development, may 
be briefly indicated as follows: 

1. The native American must be induced to look upon the foreigner 
with more than toleration—with friendliness and broad human sympathy. 

2 . As the immigrant has been admitted to full and free participation 
in our industrial life, so must be given opportunity to develop his in¬ 
dividuality along other lines of human activity. The gatherings at the 
American House have already revealed two or three instances of extraord¬ 
inary musical and dramatic ability. 

3. There must be equal educational opportunity. 

4. The foreigner must be given assistance in many ways so that 
he may readjust his ideas so violently dislocated by his transfer to a 
strange land and to a new industrial, civic and social environment. 


356 


AMERICANIZATION 


In order to realize these conditions, the American House 
has broken away from the traditional “settlement” idea. 
In the settlement house, as such, there is always the 'danger 
that the head worker will be something of an autocrat and 
that leadership will not arise spontaneously but will be im¬ 
posed from above. In the American House, on the contrary, 
there is nothing of paternalism. Its activities are based upon 
the cooperation of all rather than the direction of a few. 

The management embodies the ideals of representative 
government. The executive committee and its director act 
merely in an advisory capacity. In the near future there will 
be formed a federation of the 175 foreign societies in the 
city, and to its officers the new institution will be turned 
over. The federation will assign space to the different na¬ 
tionalities and fix dates for meetings. It will also make 
known to the director what kinds of group work are de¬ 
sired. 

The activities at the American House are conducted with¬ 
out cost to the foreigner. It serves the community in a social 
sense as the public schools are serving it educationally. The 
ultimate object in view is the organization of an agency to 
oversee the development of the stranger within our gates and 
to provide for his proper education, civic training, naturaliza¬ 
tion and all steps necessary to make him a desirable and com¬ 
petent member of the community. It is a large enterprise, 
beset with many difficulties. But it has been undertaken with 
an intelligent sympathy and an energy wholly new to such 
activity. The great victory has made democracy safe against 
attack from without. Cincinnati in its American House has 
erected a fortress against the dangers that threaten from 
within. 

The American House. Survey. 41:788-90. Mr 1, 19x9. 

AIMS AND STANDARDS IN INDUSTRIAL 
AMERICANIZATION 

Charles H. Paull 

During the past few years a great deal has been done and 
said in the name of Americanization. Many well-meaning efforts 
have been expended, more or less fruitlessly, partly through a 
lack of appreciation of the full significance of the term Amer- 


AMERICANIZATION 


357 


icanization, and partly because unsatisfactory methods were em¬ 
ployed. On the other hand, the method of trial and error has 
led to much improvement in the administration of English classes 
and other Americanization activities. One result of the experi¬ 
ence of the past has been the development of a definite idea of 
what the term “Americanization” implies. The definition given 
abov6 places emphasis upon the social aspect of the work, and in 
so doing strikes the keynote of all that is meant by the term. 

It will be noted that in the first part of the above definition 
the aim has been to avoid any implication that American ideals 
can be imparted to the individual without a definite reaction on 
his part. The definition also distinguishes between mechanical 
and inspirational material. Under mechanical material is in¬ 
cluded the learning of the language, which will be discussed later 
as the necessary tool or instrument for conveying ideas. The 
third important element of the definition emphasizes again the 
necessity for response on the part of the individual. He must 
not only be voluntarily receptive, but he must also be inspired 
with the impulse to live out in his own experience—in his leisure 
hours and in his daily toil—the new conceptions which his mind 
has made a definite effort to obtain. 

Three Divisions of Americanization Work 

Americanization work according to the definition can be 
divided under three headings: 

1. Teaching the language. 

2. Preparation for citizenship. 

3. Presenting material and situations which will inspire the 

individual to a larger expression of himself in his home, 
in his work, and his community. 

It will be obvious at once that this division is pedagogical 
rather than actual, as each element overlaps the other. For in¬ 
stance, it would be impossible to teach the language without con¬ 
veying ideas; and the ideas which the teacher naturally attempts 
to convey have to do with the relation of the individual to his 
environment. 

However, in outlining any scheme of Americanization work 
which involves the teaching of English it is important to remem¬ 
ber that the work divides itself as suggested above. In this 
trilogy of activities it is obvious that without the first mechanical 


358 


AMERICANIZATION 


step the other two are largely impossible. The learning of the 
language is, therefore, the gate which must be swung open in 
order to permit the contacts implied under the second and third 
headings. 

This brings us naturally to a point, which is forcing itself more 
and more into the foreground: Ought we under our democratic 
form of government to insist upon persons learning our lan¬ 
guage? Looking at the question from the standpoint of the state, 
may we not be criminally negligent when we do insist upon the 
use of a common language? Without the language the non- 
American cannot appreciate American ideals. In cases of crises 
it is difficult even to make an immediate appeal to him, first be¬ 
cause his mind has not been prepared for it, and secondly because 
the appeal must be made by some one of his own race who may 
or may not be available at the time. From the standpoint of in¬ 
dustry the need for the understanding of a common language is 
equally pressing. The five points suggested below bring out some 
of the evils which arise from the lack of a common medium of 
speech in industrial plants. 

Five Evils Arising from Lack of Common Speech 

1. Accidents frequently occur because employees are not able 
to understand warnings and directions. 

2. Cliques form in various parts of the plant on the basis of 
nationality. The tendency of these cliques is frequently to de¬ 
velop rather than to dispel misunderstandings between workers 
and employers. 

3. Misunderstandings develop because employees are not able 
to understand terms of employment and regulations, which seem 
to them, through ignorance, unreasonable. 

4. Labor turnover is increased because of dissatisfaction 
arising out of housing conditions which are forced upon non- 
American laborers by unscrupulous speculators. 

5. The worker fails to develop a personal interest in his job 
and in the plant in which he works because he cannot talk with 
those about him who are better informed than he. 

Furthermore, we must remember that whatever is of ad¬ 
vantage to the community is also of advantage to the individual. 
The worker gains nothing and loses much by failing in a local or 
national crisis. No one will argue that it was ever to the ad- 


AMERICANIZATION 


359 


vantage of a worker to be temporarily or permanently disabled 
through accident. Imaginary grievances never react to his ad¬ 
vantage, and if he has a real grievance he is much more capable 
of protecting himself if he understands the language of the per¬ 
sons who are in a position to remedy conditions which are un¬ 
favorable to him. It would be a waste of time to quote the many 
disadvantages to the worker of being exploited because of his 
lack of familiarity with our language and with our customs. 
Finally, too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the value to 
the worker of feeling at home in his community and in his work¬ 
shop. This feeling will only develop to its full value when he 
can talk with the men about him who can give him broader con¬ 
tacts with his surroundings. They can and should help him to an 
appreciation of his significance in his community and in the or¬ 
ganization of the plant in which he works. 

Interest of State in Compulsory Education 

Turning again to compulsory education from the standpoint 
of the state, objectors maintain that it is interfering with a man’s 
liberty to insist upon his learning the language. This argument 
can be answered in two ways: First, the state has the right to 
inaugurate measures which are necessary for the preservation and 
maintenance of its integrity and well-being. To be sure, the 
non-American is not a voter. On the other hand, the fact that 
he lives in a community with other people, that he walks the 
streets, that he observes or violates the laws of that community 
makes him an important factor in its life regardless of whether 
he has any voice in electing its officers. In the second place, 
there seems to be no fundamental difference between insisting 
upon an adult attending school and insisting upon a minor attend¬ 
ing school, providing that the result in both cases shall be of 
marked value to organized society. 

Many people at the present time argue that an industrial or¬ 
ganization is practicing unwarranted coercion in insisting upon 
its employees learning English. Let us suppose for a moment 
that a worker applying for a job has a serious rupture instead of 
a serious lack of knowledge of our language. No one would 
question the right of the firm to refuse to hire such a man on 
the basis that he would be too great a risk. There is no exag¬ 
geration in thinking of the non-English speaking employee as a 


360 


AMERICANIZATION 


risk which may at any time come within the jurisdiction of com¬ 
pensation laws. It, therefore, does not seem any more arbitrary 
for a company to insist that the worker make himself safe by 
learning our language, than that he make himself safe by an 
operation which will eliminate his hernia. In this connection, 
the educational program of the New York State Federation of 
Labor as quoted in the Government publication, “School Life,” 
Oct. 16, 1918, includes the following significant provision: “Ac¬ 
quisition of a fair knowledge of the American language by con¬ 
tinuous shop and school instruction, supervised by State educa¬ 
tional authorities, to be required of all employed foreign language 
aliens as a condition of continued employment.” 

In following the discussion of the previous paragraphs one 
point must be borne constantly in mind. This is that the learning 
of English is simply the acquiring of the tools of common 
speech, and that while the state or industry may find it necessary 
to insist that the individual learn the language, it must not in any 
way insist upon his accepting opinions without the exercise of 
his own volition. 


Industry Must Take Initiative 

How far shall the industry go in the development of a scheme 
of teaching English to its employees? Education is primarily a 
public function and as far as possible should be carried on by 
public agencies. Unfortunately in the cpse of the teaching of 
English and in other Americanization activities many public 
agencies have been extremely conservative in offering adequate 
opportunities for adult education. The work of the industry in 
various communities can be classified under two heads: 

(1) Cooperation of the industry with local agencies. 

(2) Offering schooling through classes financed and con¬ 
trolled by the industry where the community fails to meet adult 
educational needs. 

No argument seems necessary to justify the organization and 
maintenance of classes by a fair-minded industry where the com¬ 
munity fails to provide such classes. On the other hand the in¬ 
dustry should be careful to ascertain that it is not over-looking 
possible facilities which already exist. 

Different communities demand different degrees of coopera¬ 
tion on the part of the industries. In some cases financial assist- 


AMERICANIZATION 


361 


* anc « may be needed to pay a portion of the salaries of teachers. 
In others it may be desirable for industries to supply textbooks 
and stationery. No hard and fast rule can be laid down. It is 
probably desirable to have as many schemes of cooperation as 
there are communities carrying on Americanization work. There 
are, however, certain elements of efficient organization of classes 
which the industry only can contribute. 

Classes in the Plant 

I11 the past, adult education has been carried on usually 
through evening schools. Such a scheme required the worker to 
devote three or four evenings a week to attending classes. He 
went home from work, ate his evening meal, washed himself and 
dressed in his best clothes, and went to his class which met at 
seven or half past and lasted until nine or half past. By this 
plan only the more ambitious and energetic men attended evening 
school classes regularly. The man who had home duties, or who 
found it difficult to make up his mind to go out three or four 
evenings a week, either never enrolled in these classes or else 
enrolled and dropped out before he had learned much that would 
be of value to him. 

The more desirable scheme, which is being successfully fol¬ 
lowed in a number of communities is to establish classes in 
various industries which men may attend directly upon leaving 
their work or at some intermission in their working day. By 
organizing classes in the plant the worker is saved the time in¬ 
volved in going to and from an evening class. It is true that for 
a number of evenings a week he reaches home an hour later but 
this is far more satisfactory to the man and to his family than 
to have him away for the entire evening. Furthermore, by hav¬ 
ing the class within the plant the worker is made to feel more 
directly the economic value of learning the language. Finally the 
worker passes directly from the jurisdiction of the class manage¬ 
ment, thereby, even under a voluntary system of attendance, in¬ 
suring a more regular interest in the learning of English. 

The objection that the worker has no chance to recover from 
the weariness of his day’s work when he goes directly to his 
class may very well be raised, and it must be admitted that it 
might be better if there were no objections to allowing time to 


362 


AMERICANIZATION 


intervene between his working day and his hour of class room 
work. However, it should be borne in mind that his weariness is 
physical and not mental. By careful planning the fatigue of the 
day's work may be relieved at least in part. Some companies 
have tried serving a lunch to the men just before they begin 
their study hour. Where facilities are available, a shower bath 
might prove an excellent tonic. 

Two Ways of Securing Attendance 

As has been suggested in a previous paragraph there are two 
ways of obtaining attendance at English classes: 

(1) By offering special inducements or by setting forth the 
advantages of training and leaving it to the volition of the in¬ 
dividual whether he shall attend classes. 

(2) By setting forth the advantages of training, and be¬ 
cause of its relation to the welfare of the community, insisting 
that every one avail himself of it. 

If the state makes the learning of English compulsory it at 
once relieves other agencies of this responsibility. Up to the 
present time federal and local law makers have taken very little 
action along this line. Consequently, in most communities the 
industry itself must face the problem of deciding what its 
responsibilities are in the matter. When an industry decides 
that for its own good and for the good of the community 
it will employ no workers who have not a minimum 
knowledge of the language, the industry must establish schools, 
providing there are none, and make other arrangements for 
training its workmen. In this connection the wage problem pre¬ 
sents itself. What will the worker say when he is required to 
spend an extra hour in attending a factory school? 

Some plants have in the past arbitrarily said that he must 
attend the school or suffer certain penalties. This the worker 
feels is an injustice. Such a policy if carried out consistently 
would tend to breed dissatisfaction and thereby reduce the effi¬ 
ciency of those men who are affected by it. A far better scheme 
is to pay the employee while he is attending the factory school. 
His pay should be based upon the average hourly wage which he 
receives in the factory. In some plants at the present time in¬ 
stead of paying the entire hourly wage only a half is paid for 


AMERICANIZATION 


363 


attendance at the English class. In this way, both the plant and 
the worker bear part of the cost of carrying on the school on 
the principle that each receives definite benefit from the English 
class. 


Steps in Setting Up English Classes 

In undertaking a scheme of English classes there are certain 
definite steps which should be followed: 

(1) Survey of plant needs. This should determine the num¬ 
ber of men who need work in English classes, their nationalities, 
their classification by age groups, certain facts regarding their 
homes, and length of employment in the plant, etc. 

(2) Conferences with foremen to interest them in the 
scheme. The foreman is the representative of the plant policy. 
He has definite contact with the worker so that it is highly im¬ 
portant that all foremen have as keen an appreciation as possible 
of the real significance of Americanization work not only in re¬ 
gard to teaching English but also in its relation to other activi¬ 
ties. 

(3) Conferences and plans of cooperation with local educa¬ 
tional agencies; the public schools, the Y. M. C. A., etc. 

(4) Conferences with leaders of various natural groups to 
lead them to appreciate the attitude of the industry and of the 
community. 

(5) General publicity campaigns which will reach every 
workman by means of literature and speeches in his native lan¬ 
guage. The purpose of this campaign should be to establish 
definitely in the minds of eachi individual the principles upon 
which Americanzation work is carried on. 

(6) Development of plans for the coodination of work in 
English classes with all other agencies of Americanization in the 
industry and in the community. 

Having gone through these preliminary steps the industry or 
the community ought to be ready to take up the problem of class 
organization. There is one preliminary step which has not been 
mentioned but which may be often found of value. This is con¬ 
sulting with agencies outside the community. General advice 
obtained from those who have already developed English classes 
ought to be of marked value. On the other hand in most in¬ 
stances it is not desirable for a plant or a community to employ 


364 


AMERICANIZATION 


someone who will come in for a specified length of time and or¬ 
ganize and conduct English classes. This work ought to be done 
by a member of the community, provided a person with a broad 
understanding of community needs and a practical human sym¬ 
pathy is available. If it is necessary to obtain a director from 
the outside he ought to become a permanent employee of the 
plant if possible and he ought not to undertake the organization 
of work until he has lived in the community some little time. 
The outsider who comes in for only a short period may do more 
harm than he does good, for 

(1) He will not have an appreciation of plant traditions. 

(2) He will not have a very great appreciation of local com¬ 
munity needs. 

(3) He will not have had time s to gain the confidence of the 
workers in the plant or in the community in which the plant is 
located. 

(4) He will not have to stay with his job after his time is up. 

In developing a vocabulary in the English class two sorts of 
words should be taught. 

(1) Those words which have to do with a man’s work in the 
plant. 

(2) Those words which have to do with his activities out¬ 
side the plant. 

For convenience we may, therefore, speak of the worker’s 
vocational and avocational vocabularies. From the very start the 
man should learn words which deal with the following phases 
of his work: 

(1) Understanding of orders. 

(2) Use of special industrial terms. 

(3) Use of safety terms. 

(4) Action words common to the industry. 

Under the avocational vocabulary are included words which 
the individual would use in his home and in his community. 
Among the words of the home are: 

(1) Parts of the body. 

(2) Articles of furniture. 

(3) General household terms. 

(4) Action words. 

Under the words of the community are included: 

(1) Salutations. 


AMERICANIZATION 


36s 


(a) Names of public buildings. 

(3) Names of vehicles. 

(4) General community terms. 

(5) Action words. 

This brief outline, of course, can be elaborated upon almost 
without end. 

Textbooks 

There are at present available a number of good textbooks for 
the teaching of avocational words. To a large extent such a 
vocabulary is general though it is desirable that each community 
develop special lessons applicable to its own peculiar needs. From 
the very nature of the vocational vocabulary no general textbook 
can be written. Each industry must develop a textbook which 
will be of value to its own workers. Some important work 
along this line has already been done though the industry with 
special lessons for its own English speaking employees is still the 
exception rather than the rule. The scope of this discussion is 
too limited to deal with methods of conducting classes. Within 
the past few years some very valuable material has appeared on 
this subject and is available to those wishing to organize English 
classes. 

The following summary emphasizes some of the most im¬ 
portant principles of Americanization work which have been 
touched upon in the foregoing discussion: 

Principles of Americanization Work. 

(1) Americanization cannot be defined as simply learning 
the language. It is exceedingly broad in its scope and the learn¬ 
ing process continues throughout the life of the individual. 

(2) Americanization work should not be confined to per¬ 
sons of non-American extraction. Many people born in the 
United States need to be brought into sympathy with the non- 
American just as much as he needs to be brought into sympathy 
with them. 

(3) The learning of the language provides only the tools 
of contact to the individual, so that he may be enabled to develop 
an intelligent appreciation of American conduct and ideals. 

(4) The menace of the non-English speaking alien is so 
great to his community and to himself that we ought to con¬ 
sider carefully the desirability of insisting upon his learning the 
language if he is to remain in the country. 


366 


AMERICANIZATION 


(5) Those undertaking Americanization work should be ab¬ 
solutely sincere in their purpose, as any scheme which bears even 
the faintest taint of exploitation will react harmfully upon the 
worker and upon the cause of Americanization. 

(6) It must be constantly borne in mind that no element of 
condescension can safely be introduced into Americanization 
work. There is much that the new American can teach us if we 
are in the right attitude of mind, and we can teach him very little 
if we are not. 

(7) Above all things avoid paternalism. 

(8) The final purpose of all Americanization work is to 
develop self-acting, progressive Americans. 

(9) Education is primarily a public function and the industry 
should take the initiative only where the community has failed. 
It should always be ready to cooperate. 

(10) Above all things it should be borne in mind that 
"Americanism” is a state of the heart as much as it is a state of 
the mind. It is a feeling as much as it is a thought. 

Industrial Management. 57:148-51. February, 1919. 

AMERICANIZATION, WHAT IS IT, 
WHAT TO DO 

What Every American Can Do 

1. Win your way with our new American neighbors. Do not 
force yourself upon them. Help them to understand you while 
you try to understand them. Foster the trust of all and let them 
see in you fairness, sincerity and toleration. 

2. Avoid comparison of races to their detriment. Remember 
that all races have a native capacity for good citizenship. 

3. There is a great need on the part of all the native-born for 
"a passion for patience” which is inconsistent with the criticism 
of the immigrant’s ignorance of our institutions or law. 

4. Remember that the language of the immigrant is dear to 
him for home and religious purposes and the intimate relations 
of his life. Respect his language and he will learn ours more 
willingly. 

5. Americanization is a call for the appreciation of America 
and the understanding of the fact that even this country is in the 
making. Coercive Americanization, like coercive loyalty, does 
not make for good citizenship. 


AMERICANIZATION 


367 


6 . Make the term “Americanization” definite, signifying a 
common language, a common citizenship, a common standard of 
living, and a realization that we are all the pioneers of the Amer¬ 
ica that is to be. 

7. The immigrant is a human being, much as you and I, and 
the way you approach and treat your friends is the way to suc¬ 
cess with him. 


What the Business Man Can Do 

1. Don’t waste men. It is important that efficiency be main¬ 
tained. 

2. Conserve men. Go further than eliminating waste and 
see that the safety, sanitation, and housing of your men is keep¬ 
ing them fit. 

3. Every man or woman who does not speak English should 
be learning it. Insist upon your employees learning it in school 
or in your shop and designate one of them to see that it gets 
done. 

4. Urge the public educational authorities to start language 
classes in the factory for those who do not understand English 
and are unable to attend school. Efficiency increases with knowl¬ 
edge of English and citizenship. Give it recognition by increased 
wages and promotion. 

5. Stop anti-American propaganda and agitation the instant 
it raises its head in your plant by providing information and co¬ 
operation on true Americanism. 

6. Invite naturalization officers to explain citizenship to your 
aliens and to encourage them to make America their home. Give 
them time off with pay to attend their naturalization examina¬ 
tions. 

7. Develop incentives through wages, hours, bonuses, in¬ 
surance pensions, safety, profit-sharing and co-operative manage¬ 
ment. The employer who keeps his men at work contentedly to¬ 
day is America’s most practical patriot. 

What the Young Person Can Do 

1. Learn the names of the heroes, statesmen, artists, and 
musicians of the immigrant races and look them up in biographies 
so that you may appreciate the traditions of the immigrant. 


368 


AMERICANIZATION 


2. Treat your immigrant playmate with the same American 
courtesy that you accord others and avoid racial nicknames. 

3. Invite them to your parties with the same freedom that 
you invite others. Have some of them at your home on the great 
American holidays that they may understand what they mean. 

4. Whenever 3'ou can, help them with the language and see 
that they get the right pronunciation. Do not laugh at their mis¬ 
takes. 

5. Get them to teach you things about their country and cus¬ 
toms. Listen to their fairy tales, learn their folk dances with 
them. 

6. Read Stoddard’s Lectures and other books of travel to 
become familiar with the beautiful homeland of the immigrant. 
If possible, visit museum exhibits of their arts and crafts so that 
you may appreciate what the immigrant can bring to America. 

7. Arrange school debates on Americanization topics, such as 
“Should the Learning of the English Language Be Compulsory 
for the Immigrant?” “Should the Naturalization of Foreign- 
Born Wives Be Dependent on the Status of Their Husbands? ” 

What the Immigrant Can Do For Himself 

1. Learn English, the mother tongue of over seventy millions 
of our native and foreign-born. 

2. Find out all you can about America—its history, its laws, 
its customs and its ideals. Plan to live in America permanently 
and to buy a home. 

3. Use your native advantages, background and culture for 
the advancement of America. Remember this is your America. 
You must do your part to make it stronger and greater, so that 
all the people can be happier here. 

4. Respect and obey our laws. They are made by the people 
in the interest of all. 

5. Take out your first papers and declare your intention to 
become a citizen of the country, if you are eighteen years old. It 
costs only one dollar. 

6. Don’t leave your family, your house, your street, your 
community to take care of itself or for anybody else to take care 
of; do your own job and get others to do theirs. 

7. See that your wife and children have an equal chance 


AMERICANIZATION 


360 


with you to know America, learn its language, become citizens 
and follow those ideals of social intercourse which belong to a 
democracy. 

8. Do not judge the nation by the acts of a few officials nor 
by the emergency act of a day, but by the course of its history. 

9. The flag is what you believe it to be. The stars and stripes 
are your dreams and your labor. You are the makers of the 
flag, and it is well that you glory in the making. 

What the Neighbor of the Immigrant Can Do 

1. Help the new Americans to feel at home. Go and see 
them. Help them to adopt an American standard of living. Help 
them to get a reduction in food prices and to get coal and other 
necessities. Share the burdens, privations and self-sacrifice with 
them. 

2. Persuade a few of your American neighbors to remain on 
the street with you when the immigrant moves in, and help him 
to enjoy the advantages of American life. 

3. Encourage immigrants to come to your home to see how 
you cook, care for your children and your home. 

4. See that your immigrant neighbors are not fleeced by 
sharpers. Help them do their marketing. 

5. Discuss with immigrants their own country, show interest 
in their views, and obtain for America the many things they can 
contribute. If you learn from them they will learn from us. 

6. See that they learn early the city ordinances relating to 
school attendance, the sanitary laws, carrying weapons, and 
tampering with freight cars on the railroads. Explain the bene¬ 
fits to all in their observance. 

7. Be a big brother to at least one family and break down 
the barriers between old and new Americans. 

8. See that the immigrant mother and sister whose sons and 
brothers are not at home have protection and comfort. They 
have new responsibilities and cares and are alone in a new land. 

What Women Can Do 

1. Be neighborly with immigrant families. Take at least one 
immigrant family and be a friend and neighbor and an inter¬ 
preter of America to them. 

2. Make every national holiday Americanization Day by ask¬ 
ing immigrants to your homes or to some public meeting. 


370 


AMERICANIZATION 


3. Give up a part of each day getting acquainted with your 
immigrant neighbors. 

4. Teach the language to a class of alien women, getting your 
introduction from the schools, settlements or Americanization 
workers. 

5. Discourage in your children the use of immigrant nick¬ 
names. 

6. See that the sanitary conditions of the stores, houses, 
streets, and vacant lots in the immigrant sections receive equal 
attention from the authorities. 

7. Get together. America is a weak nation so long as class 
and racial lines prevail. 

8. Help alien women in industry to make right adjustments 
and see that they receive such protection as they need. 

9. Encourage alien women to become citizens, and help in¬ 
troduce them to our political life, if you live in a state where 
women vote. 

10. Provide special protection, care and guidance for the im¬ 
migrant mother, as regards unlicensed midwives, and objection¬ 
able lodgers. Help her to keep pace with her American-born 
children. 


What the Churches Can Do 

1. Get into contact immediately with immigrants of your own 
faith and render such service as may be needed. 

2. Make your church a center for Americanization activities. 
It is your fault if your communicants do not speak English, are 
not citizens and do not meet real Americans. 

3. Avoid all criticism of or interference with the religious 
institutions of the immigrant; rather encourage by sincere sym¬ 
pathy and cooperation the Americanization of his Church, re¬ 
membering that all religions have freedom of worship here. 

4. Include, in study class, forum and other programs, the 
need and work of Americanization. 

5. Appoint an Americanization Committee to formulate plans 
and cooperate with existing official agencies. 

6. Furnish volunteer workers for the various forms of 
Americanization work—teachers, visitors, investigators, etc. 

7. See that the entire church membership is regularly sup¬ 
plied with Americanization literature. Write to the headquarters 
of your religious denomination for literature. 


AMERICANIZATION 


37i 


What the City Can Do 

1. Request the Board of Education to establish sufficient 
classes in English and civics and interest immigrants in attending 
them. Ask that home teachers in the immigrant sections be ap¬ 
pointed as domestic educators. 

2. Interest employers to appoint factory class teachers in all 
plants willing to grant time off to their employees to learn Eng¬ 
lish. 

3. If there is an organization of demobilized soldiers and 
sailors, call their attention to the need of having special facilities 
for interpreting our laws as they affect our foreign-born popula¬ 
tion. Cooperate with them in doing this through the various city 
departments. 

4. Hold patriotic receptions for all newly naturalized citizens 
on national holidays. 

5. See that every court is provided with capable, impartial 
interpreters, appointed after examination establishing character, 
ability and experience. 

6. Appoint on library committees competent and thoroughly 
Americanized foreign-born citizens to help selection of books on 
foreign subjects. Request frequent announcement of library 
facilities at meetings of foreign societies. 

7. See that all publicity work of the Health Department and 
other divisions of the city government is printed in the immigrant 
languages. Work to make this unnecessary in the near future. 

8. Emphasize the fact that the immigrant problem was 
created by Federal law and should be distinctly a concern of the 
Federal government. 

What the Teacher Can Do 

1. Insist that Americanization shall be defined as instilling 
American ideals. 

2. Help pupils and public to know that Americanization com¬ 
prises three problems: 

1— Illiteracy, 

2— Teaching English to non-English speaking persons, 

3— Teaching American Ideals to everyone. 

3. Through your pupils and clergymen, employers of labor, 


372 


AMERICANIZATION 


etc., list the illiterates and non-English speaking persons, get 
names, addresses, nationality, and pertinent facts. 

4. Select from this list those the school can reach. See that 
everyone of them is properly approached and told how and where 
he may receive instruction. Make the community slogan “Not a 
single illiterate by the end of the year.” 

5. Enlist pupils in teaching illiterate friends or relatives 
where there is no night school, or attendance at school is impos¬ 
sible. 

6. If not able to take courses in Americanization and teach 
in night school, the teacher is in duty bound to help Americaniza¬ 
tion in other ways. 

7. Serve on committees to direct public opinion. Teach the 
process of naturalization. 

8. Plan for fitting community celebration of national holi¬ 
days and promote wider use ; of the school house. 

9. Solve the problem of the Foreign Mother by establishing 
neighborhood clubs with visiting teacher and nurse service. 

10. Form classes in school and out of school of pupils and 
adults to study the Ideals of America as given in the Constitu¬ 
tion, Declaration of Independence, and other important docu¬ 
ments, so that by understanding our ideals, everyone may be 
fortified with arguments against anti-American doctrines. 


What the Parent Can Do 

1. Emphasize American principles at every opportunity 
in the minds of boys and girls. Remember they are the 
citizens of the future, and character and habits are formed 
early. 

2. Encourage the practice of Americanism among boys 
and girls of all ages. Boys’ and girls’ clubs and fraternities 
should be suggested and fostered as effective means for prac¬ 
tical patriotism. 

3. Interest young Americans in the new patriotism which 
is a passion for pure Americanism and teach them the glory 
of equality and fellowship. 

4. Discourage any tendency to accept gratuitous benefits. 


AMERICANIZATION 


373 


Demonstrate the glory of earning one’s own way. Teach that 
it is un-American to ask charity or to accept tips. 

5. Spare no effort to bring a thorough understanding of 
the real meaning of American equality and justice so that the 
children in turn may teach others. 

6. Explain that every service has its value either spiritual 
or material, and teach boys and girls to know the difference. 
Do not expect a child to render a material service and be 
satisfied with a spiritual reward. Teach him to know the 
value of the service he renders. 

7. Emphasize in your family life the primary American 
Virtue of Thrift as practised by our Colonial Ancestors and 
epitomized by Benjamin Franklin. Create a scorn of waste 
whether of material, effort, or energy. 

8. Encourage the growth of filial gratitude and responsi¬ 
bility by showing the mere money cost of bringing a child to 
maturity. Help them to form the Lincoln habit of continuous 
self-education. 

Pamphlet, The National Security League. New York 1919. 















































































